About the Foundation
The International Pharmaceutical Excipients Council of the Americas Foundation ("Foundation") has approved the following Statement of Purpose to be used to help guide the Foundation in its future actions.
The Foundation's main purpose is to promote research and education related to excipients, i.e. inactive pharmaceutical ingredients. Excipients are usually defined as substances other than the active pharmaceutical ingredient in a finished drug product. Nevertheless, excipients are often present during the manufacturing process as well as in the finished drug product. Excipients are also used in dietary supplements and biologic products.Excipients are essential to both the creation and function of many pharmaceuticals. Excipients have traditionally been used as binders, fillers, and disintegrants to ensure that the active pharmaceutical ingredient is bound to a tablet, large enough to be handled, and able to disintegrate within the digestive system. Excipients also make many finished drug products taste, look, and feel better, thereby promoting patient compliance. In addition, excipients aid in the manufacturing of drugs by allowing the active pharmaceutical ingredient to be manipulated and move through the assembly process smoothly. Recently, excipients have become even more important due to their increasing role in the functioning of new delivery systems (e.g., nasal and transdermal routes of administration). In these types of products, excipients are often used to ensure that an active ingredient is delivered to the appropriate site of action and released in the body at the appropriate rate.
In order to promote further research in the area of excipients, the Foundation will award grants-in-aid, travel and meeting grants to qualified individuals and organizations for studying, instructing or conducting research related to improving excipients. In addition, the Foundation will award grants and endowments to universities and other institutions of higher education to promote the development of technology used to create new and improved excipients. The Foundation will specifically promote research that explores the use of excipients to create safer and more effective routes of administration for pharmaceuticals, drugs, biotechnology and biological products to optimize patient compliance. To further educate the public on the importance of excipients the Foundation will grant scholarships for undergraduate and graduate students interested in areas related to excipients. The Foundation will also provide grants to universities to encourage teaching others in the use and importance of excipients. These donations will support the effort to educate professionals and the public on the need for improved excipients to support cutting-edge pharmaceutical and biotechnology products.
As medical technology advances and active ingredients become more complex, it is imperative that excipients also become more sophisticated. This will ensure that companies have the excipients necessary to accommodate drug products that will be administered in new and different ways. The continued growth of excipient technology will also help ensure that the public has access to safe and effective pharmaceuticals that are optimal for patient care. Through its efforts, the Foundation hopes to encourage the growth of technology related to excipients for the betterment of the public and medical science.