Elite Pharmaceuticals Inc (ELTP)

[tangerine]

Quote from the patent

0050] To date, the formation of compressed tablets having dimensions of the microtablets of the present invention has been unattainable. There are several reasons for this difficulty. For example, there has been an inability to compress tablets with a diameter of about 1 mm or less without bending or breaking the tooling used to form the tablets. Upon the application of a force necessary to compress the material into a tablet, the tooling would bend or break. Aspects of the present invention overcome these obstacles. In one aspect of the invention, this is because tooling has been designed such that compressive force is principally applied perpendicular to the microtablet’s major dimension. In another aspect of the invention, this is because the compression pins which are similar in function to the punch tips of a conventional tablet tool are less prone to distortion under pressure due to, for example, their short length and additional radial support. [0051] Aspects of the present invention provide the ability to form microtablets having a diameter of about 1 mm or less at a rate of production that is suitable for commercial exploitation. For example, microtablets with a diameter of about 1 mm or less preferably are formed at a rate that is greater than about 5,000 microtablets per minute, or 10,000 microtablets per minute, more preferably greater than about 150,000 microtablets per minute, even more preferably greater than about 250,000 microtablets per minute.