Soft chews, the pet-fect dosage form!
What a better dosage form for companion animals than a small, soft, highly appetent square? In this article, we dive into the soft chews composition and why it is convenient for veterinary medicines.
What is a soft chew?
Soft chews are tasty supplements or medications designed for dogs and cats. They combine essential nutrients or therapeutic agents with flavors that animals love, making administration effortless for owners. Veterinary laboratories also find this dosage form appealing due to its easy process and scalability. Furthermore, it is suitable for a wide range of APIs types – liquid or powder, hydrophilic or lipophilic, heat or water-sensitive.
How are soft chews made?
Traditionally, soft chews can be manufactured using two processes: compressing/molding or wet extrusion. In the compression/molding process, soft chew materials are placed into a mold cavity and compressed under high pressure to form the desired shape. In contrast, the wet extrusion process involves mixing powdered soft chew ingredients with oil, then forcing the mixture through a die to create continuous shapes, that are cut at the die exit to achieve the final product.
The composition of a soft chew typically includes:
One or several APIs
A flavor, which is crucial for pet adherence and may represent 15 to 25% of the formula.
Fillers, such as corn starch, which provide consistency and help achieve the desired weight, potentially representing 15 to 35% of the formula.
Solubilizers, either solid or liquid, to solubilize the API in the dosage form.
Liquids, such as oils, glycerin or water, which are key in the processes and contribute to the softness of the dosage form, used at 10 to 20%.
How can Gattefossé excipients be used in soft chews?
Gattefossé provides solubilizers and liquids, essential to the soft chew composition, and that have been extensively used in various veterinary medicines. Our excipients offer unique functionalities to the final form, such as bioavailability enhancement, taste-masking or sustained-release.
In wet extrusion:
Our Gelucire® range (Gelucire® 59/14, Gelucire® 48/16, Gelucire® 50/13) is available in pellet form, which can be easily fed and melted in the extruder. They act as solubilizers, with concentration ranges of 10-20% successfully tested in our studies. API solubility will determine the choice of the appropriate Gelucire® grade.
Precirol® ATO 5, when combined with Gelucire®, improves the soft chew texture and can be used at high levels (up to 25%) to achieve sustained-release and/or taste-masking applications. It comes in a powder form, which is easy-to-use in the extrusion feeder.
Maisine® CC is an oil that will bring softness to the final soft chew and that has wide precedence of use. It will also act as a bioavailability enhancer thanks to its lymphatic uptake promotion properties.
In a nutshell
Soft chews are an innovative dosage form easy to administrate for pets. Their manufacturing processes, whether by compression/molding or wet extrusion, offer versatility and consistency. With ingredients like flavors, fillers, solubilizers, and liquids, these chews are designed to ensure pet adherence and effective delivery of active pharmaceutical ingredients. At Gattefossé, our excipients enhance the functionality of soft chews, providing unique benefits such as bioavailability enhancement, taste-masking, and sustained-release.
Contact us to learn more about how to include our products in successful veterinary formulations!
Animal health
The global veterinary medicines market is growing fast, notably with parasiticides and anti-infectives products. At Gattefossé, we are proud to develop excipients for animal health applications, including oral, topical, transdermal, and injectable forms, aimed for both companion and food-producing animals.
