The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 10, 2004
Filed:
May. 14, 2003
Amir H. Shojaei, Gaithersburg, MD (US);
Benjamin Thomas Kibalo, Gaithersburg, MD (US);
Scott A. Ibrahim, Burtonsville, MD (US);
Shire Laboratories, Inc., Rockville, MD (US);
Abstract
Encapsulated oral dosage pharmaceutical products are produced utilizing a system including a hopper and a dosator, where the hopper receives particles having irregular geometries and sizes greater than about 100 &mgr;m for delivery to the dosator. A gaseous fluid is directed into the hopper to fluidize particles within the hopper so as to minimize or eliminate the formation of voids within the bed of particles disposed within the hopper. The fluidization of the particles within the hopper maintains a substantially continuous and uniform flow of particles from the hopper to the dosator, which results in the formation of encapsulated products with desirable weights and particle size distributions.