Dow Announces Commercial Availability Of AFFINISOL HPMC HME Drug Solubilization Technology

The Dow Chemical Company has announced the global commercial availability of AFFINISOL HPMC HME, a new generation of cellulosic polymer for drug solubilization. AFFINISOL HPMC HME is designed for use by pharmaceutical companies looking to enhance the solubilization and inhibit the recrystallization of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) in hot melt extrusion (HME) formulations. The product’s ability to overcome solubilization of poorly soluble APIs addresses one of the main challenges facing the pharmaceutical industry today, and may help pharmaceutical companies to enhance the commercial viability of pipeline APIs that could potentially help cure diseases and improve consumers’ lives.

“AFFINISOL HPMC HME is a cellulosic polymer that incorporates the crystallization inhibiting properties of Hypromellose (HPMC), a sustainable plant-based polymer, but which can also be extruded over a wide temperature range and without the use of plasticizers,” said Christophe Massip, Global Marketing Director for Dow Pharma & Food Solutions. “We are very excited that it is now available for commercial sampling, encouraged by the initial feedback from our customers and by our receipt of the Bronze 2015 Edison Award for innovation in the Science/Medical/Dental category earlier this year.”

Trends in drug characteristics increasingly favor greater degrees of lipophilicity, higher molecular weight, greater physical form complexity, and significantly lower aqueous solubility. Consequently, an estimated 70% of new chemical entities in drug development pipelines have poor water solubility. Low aqueous solubility severely limits the percentage of a total drug dose that reaches a patient’s bloodstream, and therefore also limits the clinical and commercial viability of the drug product. As a consequence, many APIs that could potentially help cure diseases and improve consumers’ lives never even enter the market. Addressing this challenge, the AFFINISOL family of excipients is distinctly tailored to address the solubilization performance requirements of APIs for pharmaceutical applications, including hot melt extrusion formulations.

Dow Announces Commercial Availability of AFFINISOL HPMC HME

About Dow Pharma & Food Solutions
Dow Pharma & Food Solutions designs differentiated solutions that enable pharmaceutical delivery & nutritional benefits to customers around the world. A business of Dow Consumer Care portfolio, Dow Pharma & Food Solutions offers a single interface to all Dow technologies and expertise focused on solutions serving the pharmaceutical and food manufacturing markets. We provide functional excipients, active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and highly functional food ingredients to help consumers live healthier, more convenient and enjoyable lives. Dow Pharma & Food Solutions employs 1,200 people across nine sites and 15 manufacturing plants, with six cGMP's, serving customers in around 160 countries. For more information, visit www.dowpharmaandfood.com.

About Dow
Dow combines the power of science and technology to passionately innovate what is essential to human progress. The Company is driving innovations that extract value from the intersection of chemical, physical and biological sciences to help address many of the world's most challenging problems such as the need for clean water, clean energy generation and conservation, and increasing agricultural productivity. Dow's integrated, market driven, industry-leading portfolio of specialty chemical, advanced materials, agrosciences and plastics businesses delivers a broad range of technology-based products and solutions to customers in approximately 180 countries and in highgrowth sectors such as packaging, electronics, water, coatings and agriculture. In 2014, Dow had annual sales of more than $58B and employed approximately 53,000 people worldwide. The Company's more than 6,000 product families are manufactured at 201 sites in 35 countries across the globe. References to "Dow" or the "Company" mean The Dow Chemical Company and its consolidated subsidiaries unless otherwise expressly noted. For more information, visit www.dow.com.