Top 20 Pharmaceutical Excipients 2004 – 2024

What are the most popular excipients in 2024 and what has changed in the last 20 years? The numbers say: “Not a lot” but let´s go a little bit more in detail and check diverse angles. In this edition we do not have a look at the volumes but use in applications both in academia and industry. This listing is certainly not complete (main focus on oral solids) and not super accurate but should give an insight on the topic. There might be less common excipients that are not on the radar but gain importance. Please get in touch with us if you have further data so that we can adapt the information shared accordingly.

Why look at “popularity” at all?

When an excipient turns up again and again in peer-reviewed papers, it is a good sign that:

• regulators are scrutinising it,
• formulators are pushing its boundaries, or
• novel types, grades and co-processed variants are entering the market.

Add trade-site visibility and you also capture what the industrial readership actually clicks on: supplier notes, regulatory alerts, application case studies. Taken together, the two lenses provide an early-warning radar for both opportunities and head-winds.

How the data was collected

1. PubMed scan: run for 60 common excipients. Ranked list by number of 2024 publications.

2. Trade-site scan: Manual search of PharmaExcipients.com for posts dated 1 Jan – 31 Dec 2024 that name the same excipients. Counted “dedicated” posts plus appearances in composition round-ups (e.g., “50 FDA approvals 2024”).

3. Cross-match: Aligned the two datasets to see where scientific focus and industry interest overlap – or diverge.18 of 20 excipients show up strongly on both lists.

The 2024 Top-20 (PubMed) and their PharmaExcipients footprint

The data shows the excipient use in scientific publications and can give some indications about what academia is currently working with and potentially the industry will use in the future.

Major Excipients in US medicinal products as per “Pharmaceutical Excipients – The Past and Future – Ermens 2004

Back in 2004 Ermens put together this overview which covers the use of excipients in US medicinal products.

Ermens Table 2004 updated with data from 2024

Below is the short‑list that Herman Ermens highlighted in “Pharmaceutical Excipients – The Past and Future” (Business Briefing: Pharmagenerics, 2004) when he asked, “Which excipients show up in the largest number of U.S.‑marketed medicines?” The same core roster is still echoed two decades later by the International Pharmaceutical Excipients Council (IPEC‑Americas) FAQ page and by cross‑checks against the FDA Inactive Ingredient Database.

Ermens Table 2004 updated with data from 2024 incl. ranking in – U.S. oral tablets & capsules

The similar tabke as above but ranked based on counts drawn from the FDA Inactive Ingredient Database Q1‑2024 dump cross‑checked against the Pillbox/RxNorm master file; % = share of the 42 k‑plus marketed oral‑solid SKUs.

¹ Rounded to nearest percent; the ordinals shift by only ±1–2 positions versus the 2004 Ermens list.

What has changed?

Ermens’ 2004 snapshot relied on counting frequency in U.S. New Drug Applications (NDAs) and ANDAs filed up to that time.¹ The first ten alone appeared in >60 % of solid‑oral submissions. Follow‑up surveys by IPEC‑Americas (2023) show only modest shifts—mainly:

• Polymeric film‑coaters (HPMC systems) have climbed as more products use colour branding and controlled release.
• Titanium dioxide is under scrutiny in Europe, but no U.S. ban so far; several firms are evaluating CaCO₃ ± starch as TiO₂‑free whites.
• Co‑processed excipients (e.g., MCC‑silica, lactose‑cellulose agglomerates) are gaining ground but still reference their parent monographs.
• Talc and it´s future as a pharmaceutical excipient. Watch the FDA Expert Panel June 2025

Four take-aways for formulators

1. Cellulosics still rule the citation count MCC and HPMC alone contributed roughly one-fifth of all excipient-focused papers in 2024 – and each drew multiple high-traffic posts on PharmaExcipients. Expect the debate on particle-engineering and sustainable sourcing to stay hot.
2. Functionality-enhancing polymers are climbing fast Poloxamer 188, Carbopol and Chitosan each rose several places compared with 2023, reflecting the push toward complex delivery systems (biologics, muco-adhesive films, injectables).
3. Regulatory topics amplify site traffic Posts on low-nitrite povidone, residual PEG toxicity or updated Ph.Eur. specs for propylene glycol generated disproportionate clicks – a reminder that compliance questions often drive industry attention more than breakthrough science does.
4. What the lab neglects, industry still needs Talc, polysorbates and trehalose fell just outside the PubMed top-20 yet garnered dozens of 2024 trade-site mentions – chiefly because they remain ubiquitous in approved products. Keeping an eye on both datasets prevents blind spots.

Conclusion

The near-perfect overlap between PubMed’s “most-studied” list and the excipients highlighted on PharmaExcipients.com tells a clear story: what formulators research, the market reads about.

Watch out for the next edition of more special / niche excipients and their role in medicines.

Read the original article here

Source: Philippe Tschopp, LinkedIn page (37) Top 20 Pharmaceutical Excipients 2004 – 2024 | LinkedIn

Please get in touch with us if you have further data so that we can adapt the information shared accordingly here: