Basic knowledge on Direct Compression

Tableting by Direct Compression is the easiest way to make tablets. It uses the fewest excipients in the simplest process with the smallest number of things to go wrong.

All that is required is that the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) is suitable: usually this means that the dose is in an appropriate range. We believe that most API’s with a dose of 50mg or less can be formulated into a directly compressed tablet of reasonable size, say 250mg. A simple “starting formulation” and “starting process” can be used for development. For many API’s this starting formulation and process can be the final formulation and process.

If further development is required then a simple algorithm can be used to guide the process past the most common obstacles.