Patient adherence to medication is a critical factor in achieving successful treatment outcomes, yet unpleasant taste and difficult-to-swallow dosage forms remain major barriers. With over 60% of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) exhibiting inherent bitterness, formulating palatable medications is an ongoing challenge. Issues like pill fatigue, dysphagia, and aversion to bitter-tasting drugs, particularly among children and older adults, further exacerbate non-compliance.
To address this, pharmaceutical manufacturers are increasingly turning to innovative flavor tonalities and advanced taste modulation technologies. From bitterness masking and flavor enhancement to microencapsulation techniques, these solutions are revolutionizing drug formulation—ensuring that medications are not only effective but also more acceptable to patients, ultimately improving adherence and health outcomes.
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2. AAP Division of Health Policy Research. Many patients don’t comply with prescription regimens: survey. Vol. 18, pg. 213, 2001.
3. Nordenmalm et al. Children’s views on taking medicines and participating in clinical trials. Arch Dis Child., vol. 104, pg. 900-905, 2019.
4. Dagan-Wiener A, Nissim I, Ben Abu N, Borgonovo G, Bassoli A, Niv MY. Bitter or not? BitterPredict, a tool for predicting taste from chemical structure. Sci Rep. 2017 Sep 21;7(1):12074. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-12359-7
5. FirmenichTaste Lounge online Consumer Community, Total Sample n-200, September 2021
6. Huang W, Shen Q, Su X, Ji M, Liu X, Chen Y, Lu S, Zhuang H, Zhang J. BitterX: a tool for understanding bitter taste in humans. Sci Rep. 2016 Apr 4;6:23450. doi: 10.1038/srep23450
7. Margulis E, Slavutsky Y, Lang T, Behrens M, Benjamini Y, Niv MY. BitterMatch: recommendation systems for matching molecules with bitter taste receptors. J Cheminform. 2022 Jul 7;14(1):45. doi: 10.1186/s13321-022-00612-9
8. Margulis E, Dagan-Wiener A, Ives RS, Jaffari S, Siems K, Niv MY. Intense bitterness of molecules: Machine learning for expediting drug discovery. Comput Struct Biotechnol J. 2020 Dec 25;19:568-576. doi: 10.1016/j.csbj.2020.12.030
9. Andrews D, Salunke S, Cram A, Bennett J, Ives RS, Basit AW, Tuleu C. Bitter-blockers as a taste masking strategy: A systematic review towards their utility in pharmaceuticals. Eur J Pharm Biopharm. 2021 Jan;158:35-51. doi: 10.1016/j.ejpb.2020.10.017
10. Sohi H, Sultana Y, Khar RK. Taste masking technologies in oral pharmaceuticals: recent developments and approaches. Drug Dev Ind Pharm. 2004 May;30(5):429-48. doi: 10.1081/ddc-120037477
11. European Union. Regulation (EC) No 1334/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2008 on flavourings and certain food ingredients with flavouring properties for use in and on foods and amending Council Regulation (EEC) No 1601/91, Regulations (EC) No 2232/96 and (EC) No 110/2008 and Directive 2000/13/EC. Official Journal of the European Union, L 354, 31.12.2008, pp. 34–50. Available at: https://eur-lex. europa.eu/eli/reg/2008/1334/oj
12. European Union. Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 872/2012 of 1 October 2012 adopting the list of flavouring substances provided for by Regulation (EC) No 2232/96 of the European Parliament and of the Council, introducing it in Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 1334/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council and repealing Commission Regulation (EC) No 1565/2000 and Decision 1999/217/EC. Official Journal of the European Union, L 267, 02.10.2012, pp. 1–161. Available at: https://eur-lex. europa.eu/eli/reg_impl/2012/872/oj.
13. US. Food and Drug Administration. Code of Federal Regulations, Title 21, Section 101.22— Food labeling: artificial flavoring, artificial coloring, and chemical preservatives. Available at: https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/cfrsearch.cfm?fr=101.22.
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