Patent ID: 8343532

Claim:
A lozenge for buccal delivery of a drug prepared by a method comprising the steps: (a) mixing: (a)(i) a gum selected from the group consisting of gum acacia, gum arabic, carob gum, carrageenan, ghatti gum, guar gum, karaya gum, pectin, tragacanth gum, locust bean gum, xanthan gum or mixtures thereof; (a)(ii) one or more non-crystallising sugars or non-crystallising sugar alcohols selected from the group consisting of sorbitol, xylitol, maltitol, mannitol, isomalt or mixtures thereof; and (a)(iii) water in an amount sufficient to ensure the gum (a)(i) and one or more non-crystallising sugars or non-crystallising sugar alcohols (a)(ii) are fully dissolved during step (b); (b) heating and mixing the mixture of step (a) to a temperature of at least 90° C. to 120° C. to obtain a homogeneous mass; (c) cooling the homogeneous mass of step (b) to 90° C. or lower; (d) adding a drug selected from the group consisting of nicotine, an anti-emetic, an anti-migraine or an analgesic to the cooled homogeneous mass of step (c) and mixing to form a non-crystalline gel matrix; and (e) molding the mass of step (d) to form lozenges, whereby the lozenges have an amorphous structure, contain less than 10 wt % sucrose and wherein the gum (a)(i) is 40-90 wt % and the one or more non-crystallising sugars or non-crystallising sugar alcohols (a)(ii) is 60-10 wt % based upon the weight of gum (a)(i) and the one or more non-crystallising sugars or non-crystallising sugar alcohols (a)(ii).