Customers
Helping people stay in good health for longer is a cornerstone of sustainability. We provide the pharmaceutical and nutritional industries with ingredients that improve the formulation and delivery of products to meet patient and animal needs.
Enabling customers to reduce resources
SPI’s excipient technologies are directly compressible so our customers can avoid an additional granulation step in their manufacturing process and use less energy. UltraBurst® flash dose is a direct compression tablet platform that dissolves in the mouth and is designed to maximize drug loading. This allows our customers to make smaller tablets with fewer materials.
Our S-Tab® platform is specifically designed to optimize direct compression so that our customers can improve output, maximizing their resources and reducing waste. Sorbitol Special® plasticizers allow soft gel capsules to dry faster, reducing the energy needed to dry them during manufacture.
Making healthcare easier for patients
SPI Pharma specializes in formulations that make it easier for patients to take their drugs and supplements.
Our orally disintegrating tablets and powders are more convenient to swallow without water and they act more quickly. They are easier to administer and dose than liquid forms, which makes them ideal for children, the elderly and patients with additional care needs.
Easing pain and improving digestive health
SPI is a global leader in the supply of antacid actives and digestive aids helping countless people address pain and discomfort. Our range of taste-masking technology and soft gel capsules creates effective analgesic delivery and helps obscure the bitter taste of some pharmaceuticals.
Enabling vaccines for global health and food security
Livestock agriculture supports the livelihoods of 1.7 billion people. Nutrient-rich and high-value livestock and fish products also play major roles in sustaining global food security and combatting malnutrition. SPI provides proven aluminum adjuvants which enhance the effect of veterinary vaccines while lowering the overall cost to vaccinate.
SPI saponin and aluminum hydroxide adjuvants support the development and manufacture many human and veterinary vaccines globally. These proven technologies are available at scale with secure and consistent supply to support billions of doses of vaccines.
Developing a sustainable supply of vaccine adjuvants
Saponins, and more specifically the QS-21 fraction of the Quillaja Saponaria Molina tree, are used in many human and veterinary vaccines as part of adjuvant systems.
The challenge with saponin adjuvants has been sustainable availability. Saponins could only be manufactured from the bark of mature (20 year old+) trees and this process required the trees to be cut down. The amount of QS-21 was very low and variable per individual tree. 150 hectares (370 acres) needed to be cut down to produce 1kg of QS-21 using the bark method.
Although QS-21 and other saponin fractions have shown excellent results in world health vaccines such as malaria, HIV, RSV, TB and COVID, the harvesting process was unsustainable as well as having a negative impact on the forests. With increasing restrictions on deforestation in Chile and significant growth in demand for QS-21, a sustainable solution was needed.
SPI Pharma have formed a strategic partnership with Q-Vant Biosciences to support the expansion of Q-Vant’s proprietary saponin technology. They have developed a sustainable process for converting the biomass from branches and leaves into saponins. Q-Vant has started plantations where the trees are pruned at 5-year intervals, which is frequent enough to provide a steady supply of biomass for the production of saponins, whilst contributing to forest conservation by maintaining ecological balance. .
In addition to helping conserve the Chilean forest, this proprietary process has created a sustainable and scalable supply of these critical adjuvants.