FORMULATIONS AND BULK DRUG

Subject : Science and Tech

Concept :

Bulk Drug

A bulk drug, also called an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API), is the key ingredient of a drug or medicine, which lends it the desired therapeutic effect or produces the intended pharmacological activity. For example, paracetamol is a bulk drug, which acts against pain.
Bulk drugs are mixed with binding agents or solvents to prepare the finished pharmaceutical product, ie a paracetamol tablet, capsule or syrup, which is consumed by the patient.

Finished Dosage or Formulation

It is the form in which the drug is consumed by us.
A dosage form of a drug is usually composed of two things: The API, which is the drug itself; and an excipient, which is the substance of the tablet, or the liquid the API is suspended in, with other masking, stabilising and binding agents/material that is pharmaceutically inert.
APIs are supplied by Pharmaceutical manufacturers to Formulations players or for own consumption for in-house Formulations.

Generic and Branded drug

A generic drug is a drug named after the internationally accepted scientific name of the API.
For example if a company sells antibiotic bulk drug Ciprofloxacin by that name, it is generic Ciprofloxacin and if a formulation of the drug is sold as Ciprofloxacin in the retail market, it is generic formulation of Ciprofloxacin.
If a company sells the same formulation under its proprietary brand name, then it is a branded drug
Branded names are capitalised while generic names are not. Generally, prices of generic products are expected to be lower than the prices of branded items.