Pharmaceutical Excipients: What are they and why are they there?

Pharmaceutical Excipients: What are they and why are they there?

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Most of us are familiar with different kinds of dosage forms, the most common being tablets, capsules, powders etc. Nonetheless, one may wonder, given the minute amount of active ingredients these dosage forms actually contain, what are the rest of the formulation made of? These "filler of tablets" are known as excipients, and they have much more important roles than simply being a filler.
1 Sep 2016 - General
Theekshana Abayawickrama In the Philippines, some patients buy a higher dose of the drug and cut it to the desired dosage because it will be significantly cheaper. Also, some doctors make mistakes by encouraging patients to cut the drug. The stomach pH is 2.0 which means that the drug needs to be coated really well to be able to pass through it. Interestingly, excipients maintain the integrity of the drug. I did n...
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Often excipients in a pharmaceutical preparation is the last thing that we give importance to. Quite often, doctors do not just care how the tablet that the patient swallows is formed as long as the active component of the drug that the doctor wants to prescribe gets into the body of the patient. One common mistake doctors make is prescribing half dose of a tablet which may be produced with a coating to avoid destruction of the active ingredients by gastric acid. So when the patients cut the tab...
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It is important to learn and understand the exact components of all drugs including the excipients, instead of the main medical drug component.

The biggest reason for this is in understanding all possible drug-drug interactions or herb-drug interactions. The main medical component may not react to another medication or drug that the patient is consuming, but the same can not be said for these excipient components. In addition, patient with specific allergies or hypersensitivities may e...
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