The purpose of an excipient

Our Quats products, e.g. Benzalkonium Chloride (BKC), are safe and effective pharmaceutical excipients. But what is the purpose of an excipient, and what is the difference between an excipient and an active substance?

Excipients are often defined as an ingredient other than the active substance contained in a dosage form. Excipients play a central role in the drug development process, in the formulation of stable dosage forms and their administration.

The purpose is to preserve multidose pharmaceutical products against contamination by utilizing only the purest and safest ingredients. An example is human and veterinary ophthalmics, where one of the most common and effective preservatives used is BKC. BKC has been used as an antimicrobial preservative in eye drops since the early 1940s and remains the preservative of choice in multidose ophthalmic and nasal delivery formulations.

The functionality of an excipient can be determined by its physicochemical properties and its molecular structure. You can read more about the multifunctionality of excipients here.