Merck Teams Up with Kuraray to Supply PVA Grades

Under the agreement, Merck and Kuraray will offer design know-how and manufacturing expertise respectively for improving the drug performance. With this deal, a wide range of PVA polymer grades will be made available in the pharma market.

Darmstadt/Germany — Merck has recently announced that it has extended and expanded its collaboration with Kuraray Europe to exclusively supply pharmaceutical polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) grades and improvements to benefit the pharmaceutical market. PVA polymers are used as matrix/drug delivery compounds to assist in drug formulation and help active pharmaceutical ingredients enter the human body efficiently.

Merck’s design know-how, in combination with Kuraray’s manufacturing expertise, will make a wide variety of PVA polymer grades for pharmaceutical applications available. These compounds, including ones with various new properties, can help tackle pharmaceutical challenges. For instance, they can improve the controlled release of solid dosage forms and topically applied gels. The developments from this collaboration will include injectable grades with low levels of specific impurities.

PVA is a versatile polymer platform for use in developing drug formulations. Intrinsic polymer properties — molecular weight and hydrophilicity, for example — may be adjusted to meet the needs of specific formulations.