Odour testing in the pharmaceutical sector

Off-odours are a common issue for pharmaceutical manufacturers, in terms of both the drugs themselves and the conditions they are called on to treat.

Whether it’s a medical complaint that causes odour, such as halitosis, or the sensory properties of a new drug that needs to be made more appealing to patients, odour is one of the key parameters in the pharmaceutical industry. Smell – or, in some cases, the lack of it – will often determine a product’s success in the market.

Our odour analysis methods can be used for product development and improvement, as well as for quality assurance.
Our odour analysis methods can be used for product development and improvement, as well as for quality assurance.

That’s why Odournet offers a highly effective combination of human-sensory and analytical methodologies for pharmaceutical odour testing. Our experts can measure and evaluate the odours of a range of pharmaceutical products. Just like a well-honed sense of smell, our robust tests are designed to give answers, and help you distance yourself from anything unpleasant.

How can we help?

Our individually designed tests will swiftly evaluate the odour ​performance​ of your particular pharmaceutical product – anything from tablet coatings to medicine packaging. We can also give you invaluable information about your specific area of interest or concern – including shelf-life, benchmark comparison, placebo development, quality assurance, and much more.

Our range of odour testing services includes:

  • ​testing the off-odour masking​ performance of a drug coating​, encapsulation or similar
  • assessing the efficiency of different quantities of coating or similar in masking the off-odours​ of medicines
  • ​​testing the performance of pharmaceutical products in reducing certain smells, such as odours caused by halitosis
  • evaluating odour intensity, hedonic tone and acceptability, as well as ​​odour characterisation
  • quantifying odour development over time (for example, during shelf-life, and after opening the packaging)
  • identifying those compounds causing an off-odour in the medicine
  • ​comparison of the odour of brand and generic products, and benchmark comparison​
  • optimisation of odour-matching placebo development for clinical trials
  • odour evaluation of pharmaceutical packaging.

All our analysis methods can be used for product development and improvement, as well as for quality assurance – including formulation, changes in manufacturing process, supplier control, and so on. However, please note that Odournet does not perform clinical trials.​

Need to know more?

​Please get in touch if you’d like to know more. We’d be happy to discuss how we can help you to optimise your pharmaceutical products.

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