Smoke Cessation

Porex helps a pharmaceutical manufacturer develop a material suitable for encasing a nicotine therapy drug, and carries the day with a strong product design that pays off in the marketplace.

Design Challenge:
A pharmaceutical manufacturer approached Porex with a need involving the delivery of a nicotine therapy medication. Specifically, the potential customer sought porous materials suitable for use as a carrier for the medication. Absorbency and release characteristics from the suitable porous substrate material carried tight performance specifications. Equally important was the substrate’s airflow resistance and statistical consistency. Porex was asked to provide a porous material suitable for meeting the design requirements of this drug delivery application.

Solution:
Initially, Porex’s fiber technology was considered as an initial candidate for this application. Given the fibers high void volume and uniform axial fiber orientation, Porex engineers predicted that fiber technology would be better suited for the application. However, while this approach fulfilled several of the design criteria, the fiber’s lack of rigidity created non-uniform density variations between production lots. Subsequently, Porex’s engineers found a solution in a traditional porous plastic structure that benefited from an atypical pore morphology. Through the use of this irregularly shaped pore morphology, engineers were able to increase loading rates and lower backpressure within a more rigid stable format – satisfying the design goals of the customer.

Result:
Porex’s solution resulted from the investigation into both porous plastic and fiber technologies. While some companies offer one technology or the other, Porex’s investment into both technologies allowed this customer insight into multiple alternatives….and in the end a stronger product design for the marketplace.

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