Patent ID: 8383154

Claim:
A swellable vehicle for oral administration of one or more active substances, the vehicle comprising 20-80% by weight of a swellable gellan gum, or swellable mixture of gellan gums, arranged in a configuration allowing optimal water diffusion so that upon addition of a predetermined amount of an aqueous medium, without the necessity of applying shear forces or other mixing forces, within a time period of 5 minutes or less swells and/or gels; wherein the gellan gum is acylated within a degree of up to 4 per every two repeats of the glucose-rhamnose-glucose-glucoronic acid unit of the polymer, and the vehicle further comprises a hydrophilic agent selected from the group consisting of electrolytes, organic acids and osmotic agents, and mixtures thereof, that improves swelling of the gellan gum; and the texture of the swelled vehicle being similar to that of a soft pudding and having a viscosity of at least about 10,000 cps as measured by a Brookfield Viscometer with a #4 LV spindle at 6 rpm and at 20-25° C.; the Viscometer spindle is centered in the test sample container, the spindle is properly immersed to the mid-point of the shafts narrow portion; test method: Into a 500 ml beaker 22-88 g test material is accurately weighed, 500 ml tapped water is added, mix until all the material is dispersed/dissolved, and after about 5 min the viscosity and the temperature are measured.