Shin-etsu Chemical Co., Ltd.

Shionogi Company Limited

Nisshin Kasei Co., Ltd.

Daido Chemical Corporation

Other

Mingtai Chemical Co., Ltd.

Nisshin Kasel Co., Ltd.

Noboru Hoshi

Yasushi Takagishi

Yoshio Doi

Shigeru Ohno

Fujio Sekigawa

Toshio Shimamoto

Yoshihiro Furuya

Toshiro Fujii

Shunji Uramatsu

Makoto Noami

Taizo Yamamoto

Yuichi Nishiyama

Hiroaki Muto

Yoshiro Onda

Soji Tanioka

Tohru Chiba

Hideyuki Maekawa

Kinzaburo Noda

Kiichiro Ohsuga

Shigeru Sugiyama

Shionogi & Co, Ltd

Kanji Aita

Hsin Tan Chou

Cheng Yu Chen

Kohachi Kawamura

Shigeru c/o Daido Chemical Corporation Sugiyama

Toshio c/o Daido Chemical Corporation Shimamoto

The present invention relates to a novel resin composition useful as a coating agent or a binder for medicines, drugs for animals, agricultural chemicals, fertilizers, foods or the like, which contains a polyvinyl alcohol copolymer as a main component. More particularly, the present invention relates to a resin composition, characterized in that the composition is obtained by copolymerizing a polyvinyl alcohol having an average polymerization degree of 1300 or less, and at least one polymerizable vinyl monomer in a weight ratio of 6:4 to 9:1.

Coating composition

A foreign substance inspection apparatuswhich obtains images of a powder material with a two-dimensional cameraand subjects the image data outputted from the camerato image processing, whereby foreign substances mixed into the powder material are detected. The foreign substance inspection apparatuscomprises a rotatably supported containerwith an opening surface in a substantially horizontal state; a liftably supported lift memberinside the container; a drive control device for controlling rotation of the containerand rise and fall of the lift memberand a scraping platedisposed on the opening surfaceof the containerThe two-dimensional camerais located so as to obtain images of the surface of the powder material that is exposed on the opening surface

Foreign substance inspection apparatus

A hard capsule which is made mainly of a polymer or copolymer obtained by polymerizing or copolymerizing at least one polymerizable vinyl monomer in the presence of polyvinyl alcohol and/or a derivative thereof. Unlike conventional hard capsules, this hard capsule can be filled with a solvent (e.g., polyethylene glycol) for a sparingly soluble drug ingredient.

Hard capsule

In place of gelatin conventionally used as a material for shaping hard medicinal capsules, the invention proposes a hard capsule for medicinal use shaped of a polymer blend of a water-soluble cellulose ether, e.g., alkyl cellulose, hydroxyalkyl cellulose and alkyl hydroxyalkyl cellulose, and a polyvinyl alcohol in a weight ratio of 70:30 to 98:2. The inventive hard medicinal capsules have remarkably low permeability to oxygen and moisture with little influences on the medicament contained therein along with sufficiently high mechanical strengths and are much more stable than conventional gelatin-made capsules against the influences of the ambient conditions, such as, the crack formation unavoidable in a gelatin-made hard capsule when it is kept under an extremely low humidity.

Hard medicinal capsule

The invention provides a novel means for the administration of a therapeutically effective ingredient in the form of a rectally applicable medicament capsule, in which the otherwise unavoidable extreme variation in the absorbability of the effective ingredient among the individuals rectally treated with the capsules is minimized. It has been unexpectedly found that, when the effective ingredient is contained in the capsule in the form of a liquid medicine, the osmotic pressure of the liquid content plays a very essential role in the absorption of the effective ingredient through the rectum and the variation in the absorbability of the effective ingredient among the individuals can be minimized when the osmotic pressure of the liquid content is substantially higher than the osmotic pressure of the rectal fluid with which the capsules are contacted.

Medicament capsules for rectal application

The invention provides a novel and efficient means for the administration of a therapeutically effective ingredient by rectal application in the form of a medicament capsule encapsulating the effective ingredient. The medicament capsule according to the invention is formed of a hard capsule shell made of a mixed ester of a cellulose ether, e.g. alkyl-, hydroxyalkyl- and hydroxyalkyl alkylcelluloses, esterified with aliphatic monacyl groups and acidic succinyl groups. When the capsule is inserted into the rectum, the capsule shell is disintegrated and the rectally absorbable effective ingredient is readily and smoothly released into the rectum and absorbed to exhibit therapeutical effects as efficiently as with conventional suppositories.

The invention provides a novel means for overcoming the problem of undue and irregular delay in the exhibition of the effect of medicine when a patient is administrated with an enterosoluble hard-capsulated medicament. The unexpected discovery that the key parameter ruling the smooth transfer of an enterosoluble capsule from the stomach to the intestinal canals is the overall specific gravity of the capsule has led to the establishment of the invention which proposes an enterosoluble hard-capsulated medicament having an overall specific gravity of at least 1.05 or, preferably, at least 1.10.

Enterosoluble hard-capsulated medicaments

The sugar-coated solid dosage forms have improved disintegrability even in a neutral medium after prolonged storage, with sugar-coating layers having excellent mechanical strengths. The coating layer that is in direct contact with the surface of the solid dosage form contains a water-insoluble hydroxypropyl cellulose with a relatively low content of hydroxypropoxy groups, say, from 4 to 16% by weight. The hydroxypropyl cellulose is used by being suspended in the coating syrup or mixed in the dusting powder for purposes of subcoating. It is also possible to use the hydroxypropyl cellulose in the form of suspension to form a smoothing coat.

Sugar-coated solid dosage forms

Enteric coatings are provided on solid pharmaceutical dosage forms by a method comprising covering the dosage froms with an aqueous solution of a polymeric substance having carboxyl groups in the watersoluble salt form and contacting the thus coated dosage forms with an inorganic acid to convert the polymeric substance into the water-insoluble acid form. The coating solution includes no organic solvent, and this method is safe from dangers of fires or explosions and air pollution.

Method for providing enteric coatings on solid dosage forms

Methylcellulose with or without the addition of medically active ingredients and other additives is first granulated by a known method into granules of appropriate size and then the granules are blended with a disintegrator and compressed into tablets. The tablets obtained by the method have sufficient hardness and very short disintegration time when taken into the human body in comparison with the poor disintegrability of tablets directly shaped from powdery methylcellulose or a methylcellulose-based mixture of active ingredients. The method is useful for tableting some medicinals of poor tabletability, such as, pancreatin which require large amounts of a binder to be successfully shaped into tablets. Tablets of methylcellulose prepared in accordance with the method can find use as a non-caloried food.

Preparation of readily disintegrable tablets

When a mixture comprising 30 to 70% by weight of an enterosoluble cellulose derivative containing a monoester linkage with a polybasic acid, such as, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose phthalate, and 70 to 30% by weight of a digestive fluid-insoluble cellulose derivative, such as, ethylcellulose is used as a coating material for solid medicines, the rate of gradual release of active ingredients of the medicine in the intestinal tracts can be appropriately controlled.

Coating compositions for solid medicines

Growing community of inventors

Higashikurume, Japan

Noboru Hoshi