Pharmaceuticals
Enhancing drug efficacy using sustained-release coatings 7th April 2020
By Vikash Kumar & Annirban Bhattacharya, MarketsandMarkets Research Private Ltd.
The sustained-release coatings market is projected to grow from $478 million in 2019 to $660 million by 2024, a CAGR of 6.6% durin
Annirban Bhattacharya
Vikash Kumar
A sustained-release coating is used to form a microcapsule, which consists of active material in the internal phase, surrounded by a coating. The internal phase is called the core and the outer coating is called the shell. The diameter of the microcapsule may range from several microns to 1mm and the shell acts as a protector or controller of the activity of the core material. The market for sustained-release coatings is growing globally at a significant rate due to their numerous applications and multiple advantages over other technologies. Some of the significant benefits of sustained-release coatings are the protection of the core material from various environmental conditions, flow control of active ingredients, targeting of specific actions, and masking characteristics.
The various active materials that are formulated into microcapsules include drugs, biosimilars, enzymes, vitamins, and catalysts, among others. These are encapsulated in many polymeric materials, including ethyl- and methylcellulose, polyvinyl and cellulose acetate, methacrylic acid, and polyethylene glycol (PEG).
North America accounted for a significant market share of 36% in 2019, followed by Europe, with a share of 28% of the overall market. The US dominated the global sustained-release coatings market with a share of 80% of the North American market in 2019. Several factors, including the increase in the production of generics, growth in the adoption of dietary supplements, rise in per capita pharmaceutical spending, and the ageing population, along with the rising incidence of chronic diseases, support market growth in the US, while the strong presence of pharmaceutical manufacturing companies in the US also makes North America a dominant market for sustained-release coatings.