How well do we know about the challenges faced by capsule manufacturing companies in India? Barely anything, isn’t it? The Indian capsule industry is going through a crisis, followed by gelatine manufacturers’ struggle to deal with the problems like raw materials and labor shortages. The manufacturing companies have indeed gone through a lot.
What are they doing to recover from it ?
The labor crisis may be settled by running some strategies like safety policies, or they may be incentivized to resume working. The companies might even work towards improving their financial stability by cutting down on unnecessary things, revising their policies, renegotiating leases, making use of the virtual medium for meetings, etc.
Gelatine users are going through a challenging phase as the availability of nearly 30,000 formulations with gelatine capsules may be impact owing to the lack of empty capsules. Gelatin capsule makers are considering other alternate options, it’s incredibly challenging when the raw materials are not appropriate source due to the national lockdown. Which is escalate by restraints impose on transportation, and accessibility to raw materials has become close to impossible.
The assembling organizations have for sure gone through a ton.
Role of a capsule supplier
The role of a capsule supplier, contrary to what most people tend to believe, is not just confined to supplying empty capsules to their customers. The smooth delivery of all the components present within a capsule is also their responsibility. The quality and appearance of a capsule play an important as far as its efficiency is concerned,
High-performance capsules are manufacture keeping both qualities as well as design in mind. QbD is a term use by suppliers, which means making sure that there is smooth production of defect-free capsules, keeping the ideal design in mind, which further smoothens the filling part.
Supplier qualification process
- Running countless trials to make sure the capsules( from the new supplier) are defect-free and have no processibility issues.
- Drug products make with these capsules are test to ensure they satisfy requirements and are parallel to the drug product make with the capsules from the previous supplier.
- The new capsule supplier needs to present the drug product manufacturer with documentation so they can verify whether the capsules are safe or not.
After tablets, capsules can easily consider the second most used drug delivery dosage form; despite having existed for years, recent capsule manufacturing companies in India and encapsulation techniques have undergone severe challenges when they have failed to manufacture capsules free from any defects.
The challenges faced by capsule manufacturing companies in India are tough beyond measure. India imports 400 to 500 tonnes of gelatine per month, and domestic production usually touches around 16000 to 16500 tonnes a year, which is sadly not the case any longer. Capsule manufacturers are considering other options; however, the manufacturing cost of veg methylcellulose capsules is way higher.
Last words
Lastly, even though the industry is going through a tough time with the pandemic worsening the situation all the more, however, there is hope against hope that these are temporary challenges that shall resolve.
