'Taste Masking and Taste Assessment Services and Technologies Market, 2022-2035 report features an extensive study of the current market landscape, offering an informed opinion on the taste masking and taste assessment services and technologies. The report, by Research & Markets, features an in-depth analysis, highlighting the diverse capabilities of stakeholders engaged in this field.
The oral solid dosage (OSD) market is the largest segment in the pharmaceutical industry, anticipated to reach over $900B by 2027.
However, one of key concerns associated with this industry is that the active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) used in orally administered dosage forms inherently possess an unpleasant taste/odor. The existence of such taste in drug formulations is unappealing and has been shown to have a negative impact on patient compliance, particularly among the pediatric and geriatric patient population.
In fact, in an event hosted by Adare Pharma Solutions and International Flavors and Fragrances (IFF), it has been reported that 30% to 40% of the pediatric population refuses to take a solid or liquid medication and about 26% of the geriatric population reports difficulty in swallowing tablets and capsules. Given the fact that there are numerous taste receptors on the tongue, it is difficult to block the taste of such drugs pharmacologically.
Therefore, in order to overcome the bitter taste of drugs, numerous conventional and novel taste masking techniques are being employed by pharmaceutical players; these include addition of sweeteners, coating, microencapsulation and hot-melt extrusion. Studies have suggested that application of taste masking technologies in oral drugs can increase the patience compliance from 53% to 90%.
Various pharmaceutical companies are actively investing time, capital and resources to develop palatable, pleasant-taste drug formulations, as well as a variety of taste-masking and assessment procedures for the drug dosage forms meant for children and elderly patients.
However, the overall process of development and assessment of taste-masked formulations is associated with several challenges, including variation in taste and its intensity in different APIs due to varying chemistries, identifying globally acceptable tastes, developing flavor matching placebo formulations (for testing) ensuring compliance with stringent regulatory guidelines and good clinical practices (GCPs), clinical research costs, and managing product life cycle.
The aforementioned reasons have prompted the pharmaceutical companies to outsource the taste masking and taste assessment related operations to third party service providers with expertise in this area.
Presently, 50 companies claim to offer services for taste-masking and taste-assessment, development and commercialization of taste masked formulations in compliance with the regulatory guidelines. Service providers also assist in assessment of taste masking agents in order to develop technologies suitable for a wide range of formulations with different APIs.
Over time, centralized agencies, including the US Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA) have streamlined efforts related to assessing the palatability of taste-masked drugs.
Additionally, the last few years have witnessed several strategic alliances between the players in this domain for expansion of existing taste masking capabilities to ensure drug formulations' palatability and commercial success.
Moreover, stakeholders are actively looking for patient-centric and age-appropriate dosage forms and novel excipients. Given the ongoing efforts to enhance palatability of oral drug formulations, drug adherence and patient compliance, the taste-masking and taste assessment technologies and services market is likely to evolve at a steady pace in the next few years.
One of the key objectives of the report was to estimate the existing market size and future growth potential of the taste masking and taste assessment services and technologies market. We have provided informed estimates on the likely evolution of the market in the short to mid-term and long term, for the period 2022-2035.