The Need for Taste Masking

Many drug actives are intensely bitter or have other aversive taste, aroma, texture or mouthfeel attributes. Unfortunately, these attributes are frequently unknown or inadequately addressed during development, resulting in drug products that may not be well tolerated by patients.

When drug products are not properly taste-masked, dosing compliance and health outcomes suffer. This is especially true for pediatric formulations or drugs for adults who have difficulty swallowing.

At Senopsys, we never forget that patients are people!

Common Taste Masking Issues

Developing palatable pharmaceuticals can be a daunting undertaking filled with many clinical regulatory, market and technical challenges.

Formulation

  • Quantify the taste of the API or prototype formulations
  • Determine if an API modification technology will be required for taste masking
  • Select optimal dosage forms for palatability
  • Develop palatable, taste-masked formulations
  • Ensure formulation compatibility and stability

Regulatory

  • Develop age-appropriate drug products to meet regulatory requirements:
    • EMA Paediatric  Investigation Plan (PIP)
    • FDA Pediatric Study Plan (PSP)
  • Ensure global acceptability of excipients

Clinical

  • Improve palatability of formulations poorly tolerated by first in human volunteers
  • Develop palatable pediatric formulations that enable dose titration
  • Identify appropriate dosing vehicles – pharmacy preparations, foods, beverages
  • Assess taste in accordance with GCPs
  • Develop flavor-matching placebo formulations

Marketing

  • Specify drug product sensory attributes (target product profile) for target patient population – taste, aroma, texture, and mouthfeel
  • Identify globally accepted flavor types
  • Manage product lifecycle – new dosage forms
  • Benchmark flavor quality of competing products

At Senopsys, we help reduce technical and market risks by doing what we do best – develop palatable drug products!

The Senopsys Difference

Our name, Senopsys, is derived from Sensory Optimization Systems. It’s what we do. Importantly, it’s all we do.

Senopsys scientists are experts in taste assessment, taste modulation, taste masking, excipient functionality and flavor construction.  

We have decades of experience developing palatable liquid, powder and solid dosage forms of investigational and approved drugs.

Senopsys partners with pharmaceutical, biotechnology and drug delivery companies to develop palatable drug formulations that meet the needs of diverse patient populations

We are independent, objective and “technology agnostic” and do not license technology, sell ingredients or manufacture products. We are collaborative and routinely work with our client’s CDOs, CDMOs and CROs.

But Senopsys does more than just develop palatable drug products. We also provide our clients with early stage guidance on age-appropriate dosage forms, PIPs/PSPs, Target Product Profiles, taste masking technology and formulation approaches, data requirements, and more.

A Proven Approach

Senopsys pioneered and honed a proven process for developing palatable drug through decades of experience in the field.

Step 1: Taste Assessment

We use our experienced taste panels and analytic tools suite to quantify the taste masking challenge and guide formulation development, applying internationally recognized methods in a CGP-compliant environment

The outcome is a quantitative taste profile and roadmap for developing a palatable formulation.

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Step 2: Taste Masking

We apply a structured, sensory-directed development approach, pioneered in the food industry, to create palatable, taste masked drug formulations for liquids, powders and solids.

The end product is a palatable formulation ready for clinical and commercial development.

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Enabling Capabilities

Senopsys has built the capabilities and infrastructure to support taste assessment and taste masking studies to meet the unique needs of the pharmaceutical industry.

Our resources include experienced investigators, sensory panelists, and formulation scientists supported by formulation laboratories, sensory evaluation facilities, and more.

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Senopsys is the only company that offers both a robust taste assessment analytics platform and a proven taste masking formulation development process.

Explore the Art and Science of Taste Masking

We invite you to explore the art and science of taste masking by viewing a recent case study or downloading our white paper.

Dedicated to Developing Palatable Drug Products

Senopsys is the taste-masking development partner of choice for 15 of the top 25 global pharma companies as well as dozens of emerging and mid-size pharma and biotech companies.

Ask us questions, inquire about our services or schedule a “lunch and learn” seminar about the art and science of taste masking.

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