An apparatus for dosing solid particulate material into one or more receptacles, the apparatus comprising: a reservoir for containing an amount of solid particulate material; a dosing unit comprising a dose collection position for collecting a predetermined dose of solid particulate material from the reservoir, and a dose release position for releasing the solid particulate material into the one or more receptacles; a receptacle handling unit for retaining the one or more receptacles, arranged to at least periodically align at least one of the one or more receptacles with the dosing unit when in the dose release position; and optionally a receptacle closing unit for closing the one or more receptacles once filled with the solid particulate material; wherein the dosing unit comprises one or more dosing chambers arranged to displace relative to said reservoir, and/or vice versa, along a perpendicular axis Y such that at least a portion of the chamber(s) is capable of being immerged into, and emerged out of, the solid particulate material at least when the dosing unit is in the dose collection position, the reservoir being arranged to impart a fluid-like state to the solid particulate material at least for the duration of the displacement.

Various methods and apparatuses are presented for an ingestible capsule that includes a digital, ingestible sensor componentor ingestible sensorembedded into the capsule. The ingestible sensor component may be configured to activate upon coming into contact with conductive fluid, such as a body's stomach fluid. Once activated, the ingestible sensor component may be configured to perform various tasks, such as transmitting one or more signals and obtaining biometric data about the body that ingested the capsule.

A method of preparing a pharmaceutical product comprises the steps of (a) providing a neat active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) complying with at least five of the following parameters determined by using a FT4 powder rheometer: (i) specific basic flow energy of at most 60 mJ/g; (ii) stability index of 0.75 to 1.25; (iii) specific energy of at most 10 mJ/g; (iv) major principle stress at 15 kPa of at most 40; (v) flow function at 15 kPa of at least 1.3; (vi) consolidated bulk density at 15 kPa of at least 0.26 g/mL; (vii) compressibility of at most 47%; and (viii) wall friction angle of at most 40; (b) dispensing the neat API of step (a) into a bottom part of a pharmaceutical carrier using a vacuum assisted metering and filling device; and (c) encapsulating the bottom part, thereby producing a pharmaceutical product.

Compactable gastric residence systems comprising therapeutic agent formulations for sustained gastric release of therapeutic agents are disclosed, as well as methods and systems for encapsulating such gastric residence systems. Hie methods and systems for encapsulating the gastric residence systems can be automated from receiving a bulk of gastric residence systems, orienting, placing, compacting, securing, and encapsulating the gastric residence systems.

A pipette for metering powder has a pipette sleeve and a metering piston having an end face for ejecting powder from the sleeve. The sleeve includes a free end and, on the sleeve inside, includes a circumferential wall extending in a closed manner around a longitudinal axis. The wall extends in the direction of the axis up to the free end and ends there in an edge which extends around the axis. The piston is guided to be movable parallel to the axis inside the wall. The end face, with the piston in a retracted metering position, defines a chamber with the wall. The wall is, in the region of the chamber, divided into a guide portion and a release portion adjoining the guide portion and extends up to the edge. The release portion surrounds a cross section of the chamber which is radially widened compared to the guide portion.

A system comprising one or more of a programmable encapsulation for containing and regulating the release of a medicament, an encapsulating device used by a manufacturer which encloses the medicament within a programmable encapsulation, a programming device used by a pharmacy or dispensary which programs the encapsulation with an intended patient's health data and prescription data, a consumer encapsulation storage device configured to store one or more programmable encapsulations for one or more of a patient, authenticate the identity of a patient, and dispense medicaments to the patient in accordance with the patient's prescription, and a portable reader configured to scan a programmable encapsulation and display the details of the medicament and instructions for its consumption.

A device and a method for determining a closing force, the device including at least a lower part segment (45) for receiving at least one capsule lower part (15), at least one upper part segment (44) for receiving at least one capsule upper part (13), at least one closing means (47) that acts upon the capsule lower part (15) and/or the capsule upper part (13) for closure, wherein at least one force sensor (42, 46) is provided for absorbing a force (F) that acts upon the capsule (12) during closure.

The invention relates to a device for filling containers with filling material in powder form, comprising: at least one metering wheel (29); a metering chamber (28a, 28b); at least one container (27) for discharging into the metering chamber (28a, 28b) a filling material (21) to be metered; at least one filter (36) which is mounted on the metering chamber (28a, 28b), the filter (36) being non-permeable to the filling material (21) and permeable to a gaseous medium; at least one feed (46) for the gaseous medium, to influence the filling material (21) to be metered in the metering chamber (28a, 28b) by means of the gaseous medium via the filter (36), at least one transport means (43) being provided to displace the filter (36) such that a new region of the filter (36) reaches the underside of the metering chamber (28a, 28b).

An intermittent rotary machine for filling capsules with pharmaceutical or nutraceutical products is provided with a dosing disc, which delimits a hopper at the bottom for containing a pharmaceutical or nutraceutical powder product and has at least a group of dosing chambers, which are fed first of all through at least one compacting station, in the area of which the product contained in each dosing chamber is compacted by a respective compacting piston, and then through an expulsion station, in the area of which only part of the product contained in each dosing chamber is discharged into a respective capsule by a respective expelling piston.

A device is for ejecting at least one capsule from a capsule holder. The capsule holder has at least two capsule receptacles for, in each case, one capsule. The device comprises: at least two ejectors, each of the ejectors being configured to eject a respective one of the capsules from the corresponding one of the receptacles; a drive unit configured to actuate the at least two ejectors independently of each other in an ejection direction and in an opposite return direction; the drive unit having a pneumatic actuating cylinder for each ejector; the pneumatic actuating cylinders being individually actuatable as a drive for respective ones of the at least two ejectors; a limiter element which is provided jointly for a plurality of the at least two ejectors and which has a cyclical lifting drive; and, each ejector being assigned a stop acting in the return direction for the limiter element.