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The lines between polymer and pharmaceutical processing continue to cross. Just recently, compounder Foster Corp., Putnam, Conn., unveiled custom extruded film and rod from drug/polymer blends for implant, patch, and oral drug-delivery applications .The extrusions are available with customer-specified active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) and a range of polymer formulations.

Foster (fostercomp.com) has a dedicated ����ý unit for highly regulated materials, called Delivery Science, which specializes in blending polymers and API with twin-screw extruders in a cGMP clean-room environment. Foster traditionally provided custom blends in pellet form for extrusion into shapes used for drug delivery. These shapes included film for mucosal and transdermal patches and rods for implantable drug delivery. But now Foster is supplying its own drug/polymer films in widths of 2 to 5.5 in. and thicknesses from 0.03 mm, as well as solid rods from 0.020 to 0.315 in. diam.

Foster combines material preblending with direct extrusion, which eliminates a heat history and protects heat-sensitive API ingredients. (For more on Foster see Plastics Technology’s June 2011 cover story.)