The Challenge
Paliperidone is an antipsychotic drug commonly used to treat schizophrenia. Its novel extended-release formulation makes it therapeutically ideal for treatment of psychotic disorders but presents a significant packing challenge for pharmaceutical companies.
Paliperidone is extremely sensitive to oxygen degradation, posing challenges to the drug’s stability throughout the duration of its entire shelf life.? In addition, Paliperidone is hygroscopic and highly sensitive to moisture. Packaging engineers and formulators have invested a great deal of time and resources to resolve these issues.
The obvious method of protection is to add large quantities of desiccants and oxygen scavengers. However, these common solutions involve many risks that can adversely affect the therapeutic effects of this drug.
Firstly, this approach is not patient-centric as often patients immediately discard the desiccants upon opening, making the drug vulnerable to moisture. Secondly, in the case of oxygen scavengers, the chemical reactions of polymer or iron-based scavengers are not fully understood.
The Solution
Packaging engineers and formulation experts have found the optimal solution in LOG’s MultiBlock™ bottle. With its six layers of protection, the MultiBlock™ provides up to 12x better moisture barrier performance and 100x better oxygen barrier performance as compared to standard HDPE containers. Its OTR (oxygen transmission rate) and MVTR (water vapor transmission rate) are equivalent or better than glass, offering excellent barrier properties for this class of drugs.
The MultiBlock™ bottle reduces the reliance on desiccants and oxygen scavengers, providing greater ease of use for patients and guaranteeing the drug’s stability and effectiveness throughout its shelf life. In addition, MultiBlock™ allows easy operational use and lower cost of goods for generic players and meets all FDA and European Pharmacopoeia requirements.
For more information on MultiBlock™ and its benefits, click here.
