Oral formulations for paediatrics: palatability studies – Article

Palatability is one of the main (but not exclusive) pharmaceutical attribute of dosage forms which affect patient’s acceptability of an oral medicinal product and it is crucial for compliance to their treatment. The non-acceptance of a medicine due to the bad taste can have detrimental consequences on the treatment outcome if the medicine is partially or not taken, leading to suboptimal therapeutic effect to no effect at all.

Palatability is defined as the overall appreciation of an (often oral) medicine by organoleptic properties such as vision (appearance), smell, taste, aftertaste and mouth feel (e.g. texture, cooling, heating, trigeminal response), and possibly also sound (auditory clues). It is determined by the characteristics of the active substance (and excipients) and many have aversive taste characteristics. Palatability is also relevant for other routes of administration e.g. buccal, nasal, inhalation use, and whenever the product may contact the taste receptors indirectly e.g. by deposition in the throat, post nasal run off, etc.

The development of paediatric medicines can be challenging since this is a diverse patient population with specific needs. For example, children have different taste preferences. Acceptable palatability of oral paediatric medicinal products is of great importance and this has been recognised by regulatory authorities and so is becoming a key aspect of paediatric pharmaceutical development studies.

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