Merck has launched its Parteck^® COAT excipient, a new functional material designed for immediate release film coating applications. Parteck^® COAT is a particle engineered polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) with a unique particle structure that enables rapid dissolution even at low temperatures leading to an increased process efficiency.

Merck is the only supplier to offer a fast-dissolving PVA for coating applications. The water-soluble particle offers reliable batch-to-batch consistency, contributing to the quality and performance of the final drug product.

Parteck^® COAT offers low viscosity in solution, even at high concentrations of 20 percent, leading to higher efficacy. Compared with existing PVAs for coating applications, Parteck^® COAT has the potential to double the polymer concentration and cut the process time in half along with the following advantages:

• A stable moisture barrier to improve stability of moisture-sensitive drug substances.
• Excellent surface finishing to increase the value of drug formulations.
• A high concentration of spraying liquid to increase coating efficacy. 

Parteck^® COAT is compliant with and surpasses the requirements of all major pharmacopoeias, including United States Pharmacopoeia (USP), European Pharmacopoeia (Ph. Eur.), Chinese Pharmacopoeia (ChP) and Japanese Pharmaceutical Excipients (JPE).

The new excipient will be incorporated into Merck’s Emprove^® program. This program provides customers instant, online access to regulatory and technical information about the excipient and more than 400 other chemicals, as well as filters and single-use components to facilitate risk assessment and qualification processes. 

Experts from Merck will be available at booth #1037 at the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists’ PharmSci 360 conference in San Antonio, Texas to discuss Parteck^® COAT and the entire Emprove^® portfolio