Merck Millipore Introduces Parteck^® SLC, Silica-based Excipient for Enhanced Drug Solubility and Bioavailability

• Unique surface structure provides significantly increased loading and release of active pharmaceutical ingredients
• Delivers dramatically increased solubility and bioavailability
• Reformulation with Parteck^® SLC may extend the life cycle of a drug molecule

October 22, 2013, Darmstadt, Germany — Merck Millipore, the Life Science division of Merck, today introduced Parteck^® SLC, a new excipient with a unique surface structure that delivers significantly increased loadability for active pharmaceutical ingredients (API). Featuring a unique pore structure, Parteck^® SLC for drug delivery enables loading of oral dosage forms with amorphously distributed API to the highest levels, dramatically increasing API solubility.

”Many promising drug candidates fail during development due to poor bioavailability and represent a significant loss of time and resources invested in drug development,” noted Matthias Bucerius, Ph.D., Head of Pharmaceutical Raw Materials. “With the addition of Parteck^® SLC to our extensive portfolio of excipients, drug developers now have a new option to help increase solubility and bioavailability and advance drug development. With Parteck^® SLC, molecules can also be reformulated, potentially extending the life cycle of the drug.”

Parteck^® SLC’s mesopores (2-7 nm) create a surface area of up to 1000 m2/g for depositing an API in its amorphous form needed for supersaturation. The internal surface area of Parteck^® SLC is also easily accessible and the API is always kept stable. Feasibility studies have proven the superior performance on dissolution of Parteck^® SLC both in vitro and in vivo.

A user-friendly particle size (5-25 μm) and bulk density (0.32 g/ml) allows easy loading, tableting, or capsule creation. In conjunction with Parteck^® ODT, a directly compressible excipient, Parteck^® SLC helps to produce stable and fast acting tablets. The loaded granulate retains its performance during dissolution in solid dosage forms.

As an EMPROVE^® product, Parteck^® SLC comes with ready-to-use documentation in CTD-format, saving time and money in the registration of the final drug. Feasibility studies concerning loading and in vitro dissolution are also available.

For more information, please visit www.merckmillipore.com/bioavailability and www.merckmillipore.com/parteckslc.

About Merck Millipore
Merck Millipore is the Life Science division of Merck KGaA of Germany and offers a broad range of innovative, performance products, services and business relationships that enable our customers’ success in research, development and production of biotech and pharmaceutical drug therapies. Through dedicated collaboration on new scientific and engineering insights, and as one of the top three R&D investors in the Life Science Tools industry, Merck Millipore serves as a strategic partner to customers and helps advance the promise of life science.

Headquartered in Billerica, Massachusetts, the division has around 10,000 employees, operations in 66 countries and 2012 revenues of €2.6 billion. Merck Millipore operates as EMD Millipore in the U.S. and Canada.

Note: Merck KGaA or Merck shall mean Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany