ABSTRACT
The hard gelatin capsule has been used for many years as an oral delivery form. Initially drugs in powdered or granular form were usually filled into the capsule to provide a unit dose that effectively masked the bitter taste of drugs in an easyto-swallow container. With the advent of pellet technology to modify the release properties of drugs, the capsule provided an ideal vehicle into which multiparticulates could be filled without risk of modifying the release characteristics by compression into tablets [1]. More recently, technology has been developed to accurately dose and seal liquids into hard gelatin capsules [2-4] and this chapter will review the areas of application of this technology, outline the requirements of the formulation, compare it with soft gelatin capsule technology, and describe a process for sealing hard gelatin capsules.
