Clariant: Greater Chemistry with New Range of Excipients

Clariant, the 5 billion multinational company specialising in chemicals, is releasing a range of new functional excipients
The company is a global leader in specialty chemicals and manufactures a wide range of APIs and Excipients in Germany, Spain and China.
While in the past their reputation in pharma was for manufacturing mainly Polyglycols, Vaios Barlas, Global Director Health Care at Clariant explains that they have been focused on expanding their Excipient offering.
“Excipients are ‘the vehicles of drug delivery systems’ and are growing very fast for us. Four out of ten API’s are not soluble, our body is practically all water, so you need functional excipients to be able to make them bioavailable – soluble and permeable in our organs.”
Clariant have a comprehensive portfolio of excipients including solubilizers, emulsifiers, solvents rheology modifiers, binders, humectants plasticizers and many different kinds of agents. 
Among Clariant’s standout offerings are its high-purity VitiPure® O 80 Superior, a purified Polysorbate 80 as well as the new VitiPure® CO 35 Superior, a Polyoxyl 35 Castor Oil and its low endotoxin and microbial load VitiPure® Meglumine LEX.
Clariant also offers a comprehensive selection of Polyglykols (Macrogols), which serve as universally applicable pharmaceutical polymers. Notably, these polymers boast a spectrum of molecular weights and are fortified with CEP certification and DMF documentation, underlining their quality and regulatory compliance.
Clariant are a “top-ranked” supplier for both generics and originator pharma companies, says Vaios. He highlights a recent independent survey that placed Clariant in the top five suppliers for customer loyalty, as ranked by the global pharma industry.

Greater chemistry between people and the planet

“At Clariant our motto ‘greater chemistry between people and planet’ is our raison d’etre. It’s why we exist” says Vaios.
“In the face of the global challenges of climate change and global health and nutrition issues, we feel we bear a responsibility and have to ask ourselves, what contribution we can make.”
“It’s both a company and a personal commitment to society and to the planet to innovate, find solutions to the challenges and bring technological solutions that are friendly for the people and the environment. That’s the big challenge we’re trying to live up to in Clariant”
As an example, Clariant produce bio-ethanol based ethylene oxide, which will allow them to produce Excipients and APIs with low carbon footprint in future.
“Over time this has to become an industry standard.” says Vaios.

Key Trends: Personalised Medicine and novel Drug Delivery Systems


Reflecting on key trends shaping the industry, Vaios highlights the importance of personalised medicine.
“Pharma companies are using artificial intelligence and big data to develop targeted therapies that are customised to the patient’s genome and the medical history. This is happening at rates faster than ever before.”
The delivery of complex injectables in the form of liposomes is moving the pharmaceutical industry rapidly forward, says Vaios.
“At Clariant we are participating in this, as we did with our methoxy-PEGs and the mRNA vaccines for COVID-19. I believe this has potential to address critical diseases such as cancer, HIV and infectious viruses in a way that was impossible to imagine a few years back.”
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