Dow Wolff Cellulosics, a business unit of The Dow Chemical Company, kicked off its presence at CPhI India in Mumbai by unveiling a new product designed to meet one of the most pressing needs of the pharmaceutical industry, the solubilization of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs).

Trends in drug characteristics increasingly call for greater degrees of lipophilicity, higher molecular weight, greater physical form complexity and significantly lower aqueous solubility of APIs. Dow Wolff Celllulosics estimates that 40 per cent of new molecular entities now suffer from poor aqueous solubility.

“This presents a huge challenge for therapeutically relevant oral delivery drug products,” said Dago Caceres, Global Strategic Marketing Leader for Dow Wolff Cellulosics “Formulation scientists are increasingly in need of reliable and robust technology solutions to overcome this critical drug delivery issue.”

Dow, through its Dow Wolff Cellulosics’ business unit, contributes to solving this unmet and pressing need through rigorous science and a selection of enabling polymers. It is collaborating with US contract research organisation Bend Research to develop effective spray-dried dispersion solutions and a selection of enabling cellulosics polymers to address the challenge of formulating poorly soluble drugs.