Zydis

Zydis is a technology used to manufacture orally disintegrating tablets developed by R.P. Scherer Corporation. Zydis tablets dissolve in the mouth within 3 seconds.

Zydis technology was developed by R.P. Scherer Corporation (currently owned by Catalent Pharma Solutions) in 1986. The technology's first commercial application was in August, 1993, when a new dosage form of Pepcidine (famotidine) from Merck & Co. was launched in Sweden.

In November 1993 Imodium Lingual (loperamide) from Janssen Pharmaceutica was released in Germany with Zydis technology.

In December, 1996, the Food and Drug Administration approved the first prescription drug with Zydis technology sold in the U.S., Claritin RediTabs (loratadine) from Schering-Plough.

A Zydis tablet is produced by lyophilizing or freeze-drying the drug in a matrix usually consisting of gelatin. The resulting product is very lightweight and fragile, and must be dispensed in a special blister pack.

Amipara et al., in their article "Oral disintirating tablet of antihypertensive drug" explain the technology's limitations:

The Zydis formulations consist of a drug physically trapped in a water-soluble matrix (saccharine mixture and polymer), which is freeze dried to produce a product that dissolves rapidly when placed in mouth. The ideal candidate for Zydis technology should be chemically stable and insoluble and particle size preferably less than 50 micron.

Zydis tablets are:

Disadvantages include:

Data from "Fast Disintegrating Drug Delivery Systems: A Review with Special Emphasis on Fast Disintegrating Tablets" (2013).

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