Precision Tablet Development Through Excipient-Technology Collaboration

The 15th PBP World Meeting, held in Prague from 23 to 26 March 2026, brought together pharmaceutical scientists, excipient specialists, and equipment innovators from around the world. One of the event’s highlights was a demonstration of how excipient innovation and lab-scale compaction technology can work together to accelerate tablet development and optimize formulation performance.

KORSCH and MEDELPHARM were delighted to collaborate closely with the excipient teams from BENEO, including Dr. Maj-Britt Cepok and Oliver Luhn, as well as with the research team from the Faculty of Pharmacy at Rīga Stradiņš University, led by Valentyn Mohylyuk and his Leading Research Group. Thank you to everyone involved for the insightful discussions and excellent exchange of expertise. This collaboration was illustrated in a poster presentation at the meeting, providing a practical example of excipient-technology synergy.

BENEO GALENIQ™: excipients designed for performance

At the heart of this collaboration are BENEO’s galenIQ™ isomalt excipients, recognized for their combination of technical performance and patient-focused design. These water-soluble fillers and binders offer an ideal balance of flowability, compactability, and palatability, making them suitable for oral solid dosage forms such as chewables, oro-dispersible tablets, and direct compression applications.

galenIQ™ enables uniform die filling, predictable tablet hardness, and low friability. Its natural sweetness masks bitter APIs, improving patient experience without compromising manufacturability. The excipient is compatible with direct compression, wet granulation, and multilayer applications, and meets global pharmacopeial standards, ensuring consistent performance for a wide range of formulations.

The PBP World Meeting highlighted how early-stage characterization of excipient properties can inform formulation strategies and reduce risk before scale-up.

STYL’ONE Nano benchtop R&D tablet press: precision compaction at the lab scale

The STYL’ONE Nano benchtop R&D tablet press, developed by MEDELPHARM and KORSCH, is a benchtop compaction simulator that allows scientists to precisely control powder compression at lab scale. Its strength lies in precision, flexibility, and data-rich output, enabling detailed characterization of excipients and powder blends.

Thanks to its powerful lower punch drive system and advanced instrumentation, the STYL’ONE Nano can execute a wide range of compression cycles, including V-shape, extended dwell-time, and generic small rotary press profiles, with both pre- and main compression. Each process parameter — compression speed, dosage height, and precompression ratio — is independently defined within a recipe via an intuitive software interface.

Through force-displacement profiling, researchers can assess powder compressibility, elasticity, and tablet mechanical properties, enabling data-driven formulation decisions while conserving material at the lab scale.

Excipient-technology synergy in action

The collaboration between BENEO and KORSCH illustrates how combining high-performance excipients with precise lab-scale compaction can accelerate development. Formulators can:

• Evaluate how particle size, morphology, and binder type influence tablet hardness and uniformity
• Fine-tune compression parameters to optimize mechanical strength and manufacturability
• Reduce trial-and-error experimentation and conserve material at early R&D stages

A practical example of this synergy was presented in the joint poster with Rīga Stradiņš University, which explored how different diluents and binders affect immediate-release acetaminophen tablets under simulated fasted and fed conditions. Using the STYL’ONE Nano, the team characterized Yield Pressure (Py), strain rate sensitivity, and binder deformation, providing insights into formulation performance.

Advancing patient-centric, high-performance formulations

By integrating excipient functionality with lab-scale compaction technology, formulators can develop tablets that meet both technical specifications and patient expectations. Key benefits include:

• Consistent mechanical strength for chewables and direct compression applications
• Predictable flow and compaction behavior across excipient grades
• Enhanced manufacturability with minimal lab-scale material

The combination of BENEO galenIQ™ excipients with the STYL’ONE Nano benchtop R&D tablet press gives R&D teams actionable insights that support reproducible, efficient, and patient-centric tablet development.

The 2026 PBP World Meeting demonstrated how excipient innovation and precise lab-scale compaction work together to accelerate development and improve formulation predictability.

The poster collaboration with BENEO, KORSCH, and Rīga Stradiņš University provided a concrete example of this synergy, highlighting binder and diluent selection, compression behavior, and early-stage formulation insights. The poster is now available for download, offering a valuable reference for scientists looking to leverage excipient performance and lab-scale compaction data to optimize tablet formulations.

Download the poster here:

Effect of diluent and binder type on the acetaminophen release from tablets under simulated fasted and fed conditions.

Read more on STYL’One Nano here:

STYL’One Nano – The Most Advanced Benchtop Tablet Press – Pharma Excipients

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