GAMLEN INSTRUMENTS
Offering Comprehensive Powder Compaction Testing Services

The most common method of producing solid dosage forms in the pharmaceutical industry is the compaction of powders into tablets. Although compaction is leveraged frequently, the standard practices of compaction behavior analysis are still empirical in nature and do not take fundamental material properties into account. As a result, it becomes extremely challenging to predict whether a material will properly compact or not. Pharmaceutical companies, also, are often reluctant to dedicate internal resources to complex techniques that require specialist training.
This is where Gamlen Instruments steps in. The company is driven by its mission to provide the accurate compaction data that organizations require to ensure the effectiveness of a formulation and streamline the entire development process. “Our approach makes compaction data a lot more accessible to companies that don’t have the specialist equipment needed to perform the tests,” says Dr. Rebecca McVicker, Product Director, Gamlen Instruments.
Gamlen Instruments was founded by Dr. Michael Gamlen, who has more than four decades of experience in scientific research and tablet development. During his career, he realized that the only thing that separates a good tablet from a bad is understanding material compaction behavior. Driven by this belief, Gamlen designed and developed a computer-controlled tablet press that led to his groundbreaking innovation, the Gamlen Powder Compaction Analyzer. Today, Gamlen Instruments is recognized as one of the leaders in powder compaction analysis and supports scientists in developing high quality tablets.
To further up the ante in its niche area, Gamlen Instruments is molding itself as a full testing service provider. “We provide our clients with recommendations regarding what kind of testing they should carry out, help them to interpret the resulting compaction data and understand the implications for their projects,” mentions Rebecca. “Our expertise spares clients from investing in expensive equipment and training people to use it.”

Our approach makes compaction data a lot more accessible to companies that don’t have the specialist equipment needed to perform the tests

One particular area where Gamlen Instruments is seeing traction for its testing services and compaction data is the nutraceutical tablet manufacturing space. “The demand for compaction data without CapEx is particularly popular in the nutraceutical area owing to its complexities,” explains Rebecca. Nutraceutical tablet manufacturing involves dealing with non-traditional materials with unusual compaction properties. To this end, the company’s compaction data helps companies streamline their formulation processes and understand the compaction behavior of these novel materials better. Alongside nutraceuticals, Gamlen Instruments supports companies in testing High Potency Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (HPAPIs), which are usually expensive materials. That’s why manufacturers are often unwilling to sacrifice large amounts of material due to the cost these ingredients incur. Gamlen Instruments provides user-friendly instruments that accurately test and generate full compaction data with less than two grams of material. “Our instruments can also be placed inside containment facilities to ensure safe material handling,” Rebecca asserts. “By using very little material in minimal time, we can provide easy-to-interpret compaction data and help customers understand and improve the tableting processes,” concludes Rebecca.

To date, many pharmaceutical publications have attested to the accuracy of Gamlen Instruments’ compaction data. Striding ahead, the company is extending its expertise to the excipient manufacturing sector as well. Excipient manufacturers and suppliers are leveraging the compaction data in production to show clients the efficacy of their excipients. Gamlen Instruments is planning to have its own manufacturing area to further hone its capability and offer small scale manufacturing services