Excipients

Pharmaceutical excipients are substances other than the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) that have been appropriately evaluated for safety and are intentionally included in a drug delivery system. The European Pharmacopoeia gave definition of an excipient: “An excipient is any component, other than the active substance(s), Present in a medicinal product or used in the manufacture of the product. The intended function of an excipient is to act as the carrier (vehicle or basis) of the active substance(s) and to contribute to product attributes such as stability, biopharmaceutical profile, appearance and patient acceptability and to the ease with which the product can be manufactured. Usually, more than one excipient is used in the formulation of a medicinal product.