The Solid Dose

Colorcon prides itself on being a “High Performance Organization” and in 2015 we continue our initiatives to further improve our performance and customer service levels.

Colorcon employees around the world dedicate their time every day to help our customers solve formulation challenges and deliver quality products on time. We believe in “first time right” and focus on being a supplier that is easy to work with. In order to achieve our goal, we have built a truly global infrastructure.

Our laboratories and manufacturing facilities are interchangeable which allows our customers to enjoy short lead times and have the security that a robust business continuity plan is in place for coatings, excipients and modified release products. To further improve our global infrastructure we are proud to announce an investment in a new film coating manufacturing facility in Brazil. This facility will serve the south cone of Latin America and is targeted for commercial production in late 2016.

Martti Hedman, CEO

Colorcon also has local commercial and technical people around the world to help customers in product development, scale-up and commercial process optimization. They make every possible effort to take cost out of your business. Our new initiative in this area is “Just ASC”, which is an acronym for your annual service check (ASC). This unique service provides advice to help our customers order, manage and use our products in the most efficient way.

I would like to personally thank all our customers for your continued support. We see our business success as confirmation that the Colorcon service-based business model continues to bring you exceptional value. I wish all our customers a very successful year.

Martti Hedman, CEO

This year, Colorcon’s technical teams will host over one hundred Coating and Formulation Schools, Modified Release Forums, and Innovation Programs around the world.

These high-demand educational programs are usually fully booked early in the year. In addition to events held at Colorcon facilities, there are collaborations with universities, contract research and development organizations and specialist equipment suppliers around the world.

To further leverage their expertise to benefit our customers, Colorcon’s technical teams are expanding the training programs to include customized, on-site process efficiency training courses. These are especially beneficial for global organizations, where consistency across multiple sites is desired. The sessions are scheduled several times per year, targeted to meet the customer’s corporate training objectives. In addition to the convenience and significant cost reduction of being able to provide on-site training to higher numbers of employees at one time, these personalized content programs are tailored to educate diverse work groups. With on-site training, personnel from production, quality assurance, quality control and others can train without a significant disruption in their day-to-day activities.

Customers say, “It is a real benefit having consistent, practical guidelines and best practices instilled in all regions, and our employees are happy to participate in the familiar learning environment.”

To discover more about training opportunities offered in 2015, check out our individual schedules by course type, click here»

Or contact your Colorcon technical representative to discuss how customized on-site process efficiency training programs can benefit your organization and remove costs for your bottom line.

Film coating of solid dosage forms provides benefits in many ways. For the formulator, film coating can be used as a tool to target delivery and improve product stability. For the manufacturer, film coating strengthens the dosage form, enables improved packaging efficiency and prevents cross contamination. For the patient, a film coating can potentially improve compliance through enhanced swallow ability and palatability, allowing for better product differentiation, and minimizing medication errors through color and appearance.

Innovation to advance film coating as a moisture barrier, for taste-masking application and pH- dependent enteric protection are reviewed in an article, by Dr Elizabeth Shen, Colorcon Inc.

For a copy of the article, recently published in Innovations in Pharmaceutical Technology (IPT), click here.

Need Additional Help to Perfect Your Film Coating Process?

Coating problems are usually the result of a combination of factors. Colorcon can help you identify common causes experienced during the coating process and give guidelines on how to resolve them quickly. A quick reference (pdf version) of the Colorcon Guide to Troubleshooting is now available to download to registered users of our website. Click here»

Better Still - Expand Your Resources and Consult with the Experts

Colorcon Technical Services are available to customers around the world to help shorten their development time.

We deliver solutions to our customers’ most critical product development needs. We can help you identify possible causes and suggest ways to resolve them, resulting in increased process efficiency and improved product quality. Contact now»

Supply Chain Control (SCC) can be a challenge for many pharmaceutical companies due to multiple suppliers, different manufacturing locations and global sourcing of materials. To maintain secure supply-chain control requires the understanding, management and mitigation of potential threats within the chain.

At Colorcon, SCC means focusing on how we can ensure product quality and business continuity at every point in the manufacturing and delivery process for our customers. Business Continuity Planning (BCP) is a fully integrated part of Colorcon’s daily operating principles and practices. We provide our customers with ‘peace of mind’ for an uninterrupted, secure, reliable and protected source of products. We purchase from safe, sustainable, risk managed suppliers and operate a robust supplier qualification process. We aim to align with our suppliers to identify, mitigate and manage risk throughout each step of the supply chain.

To understand more about how Colorcon manages BCP to reduce risk to our customers, Click Here to login and watch a 30 minute webcast. The presenters are Carl Mroz, Director, Global Regulatory Affairs and Sheila Rowe, Director, Global Supply Chain.

With Colorcon as your partner, you can be confident that our capabilities will reduce your risk of supply chain interruption.

When it comes to tablets, color could have a significant impact on how people feel about their medication - so you'd better choose carefully! Find out how Colorcon's tablet designers match the tablet to the patient and market using color, shape and finish.

Connect to article in The Medicine Maker here.

A recent survey of visitors to the Colorcon website revealed that information and resources are now easier to access, enabling more customers to navigate to the correct page content and complete their task. We thank all that took the time to participate and for the high number of positive comments received. According to the third party survey company, the number of open-ended comments was regarded as exceptional and a good indicator of strong user adoption when using the site.

Here’s what our visitors say: “I suggest to a lot of my vendors that they look at your site as an example for the best customer service tool in the industry.” The ease of access to information you provide for your customers is commendable. Thank you!”

The knowledge gained from the survey will continue to support our website initiatives - we'd welcome your thoughts at any time. Click here»

A joint team of IPEC Americas and IPEC Europe recently completed a substantial revision and modernization of the IPEC Significant Change Guide. The eight-person review team included representatives from excipient manufacturers, innovator and generic pharmaceutical companies.

While working together to ensure global applicability, the team incorporated the concepts of risk assessment, now the backbone of all regulatory systems, into the content.

The guidance is invaluable to industry, providing a much-needed framework for the management, evaluation, and notification of excipient change.

Significant Change is defined in the guide as ‘Any change that has the potential to alter an excipient’s physical, chemical or microbiological property from the norm, and/or that may alter the excipient’s performance in the dosage form.

Colorcon has been at the forefront of good change management for many years. As a responsible manufacturer, we make our customers aware of any significant change and provide information, data and support to help them properly evaluate the effect any change may have on their applications.

In the attached article, Kevin McGlue, Director Global Quality Assurance, Colorcon and the IPEC European lead in the guide revision team, explores the detail and application of the new 2014 version.

Pharma Times (India) Spotlights Subodh Priolkar

Subodh Priolkar

He was instrumental in securing tie-ups with international associations like AAPS & FIP, for organizing training programs, conferences & seminars in India.

Colorcon congratulates Subodh on his significant contribution and achievements through his participation with the IPA and supports his continued involvement.

For access to a pdf reprint of the full article, link here.

Pharma Times, the official monthly news magazine of the Indian Pharmaceutical Association (IPA), recently interviewed Subodh Priolkar on his role as Past President of the IPA. Mr Priolkar, Regional Managing Director for Colorcon in South Asia, is recognized as an influencer in the growth of India’s reputation as leaders in the global pharma community.

Through his work within the IPA, and tenures as Chairman of the Industry Pharmacy Division, Subodh helped lay the foundation for exceptional student education programs, and built closer industry ties with the IPA convention program content, bringing major exhibition companies and associations such as CPhI and Interphex to India.

The International Pharmaceutical Excipients Council (IPEC) Europe recently recognized Carl Mroz, Global Regulatory Affairs Director, Colorcon, for his 25 years of continuous contributions.

During their 2015 Annual Meeting, the IPEC Europe board presented a special award to Carl for his knowledge, experience, and dedication for helping make IPEC Europe a successful and representative body for the excipient industry.

Colorcon congratulates Carl on this award.