Capsugel’s Licaps liquid-filled hard capsules have been successfully used by GlaxoSmithKline for GRANU FINK, an established product line in the German urological market.
 
The product was initially launched in a soft gelatin capsule form and GSK decided to investigate other dosage form options to improve the product’s quality and reduce its production-to-market lead time. GRANU FINK’s active ingredients, pumpkin seeds extracts and pumpkin oil, were challenging to encapsulate because of the large particle size and required a long maturing period when encapsulated in traditional softgels. After testing a switch to Capsugel’s Licaps technology, GSK found the product to be leak-free and have now reduced their product lead times by 12 weeks, according to a Capsugel statement.
 
Dr. Stephan Wurtz, head of production at GSK in Herrenberg, said, “After comparing two different automated capsule sealing techniques, the Licaps capsules had intact seals during the complete period of stability testing and we could not detect any leakage. Capsule integrity is a key parameter used to predict product shelf-life and especially helps with preventing too many product returns and this is why we ultimately chose the Licaps liquid-filled hard capsules as our dosage form.”
 
Dr. Wurtz added, “The Licaps system has integrated well with our Bosch capsule-filling equipment and because of the expert technical assistance we had from Capsugel’s installation and formulation teams, we put in place a number of new validated production processes with five fully trained operators in a very short time. During one shift using the Licaps system, up to 350,000 Licaps capsules can be filled. We now have full in-house control of the manufacture of our drug and supplement lines, which gives us a number of benefits.”
 
Keith Hutchison, senior vice president of R&D at Capsugel said, “We are delighted that a company such as GSK was willing to embrace and test Licaps capsules so extensively with their new pharmaceutical and nutraceutical product lines. Their work leads the way for other pharma and healthcare companies seeking rapid scale up and production of high integrity liquid-filled hard capsules.”