# Pharmaceutical excipients

Excipients are the inactive ingredients that make up most of a tablet's mass: lactose, cellulose, starch, coatings and binders, mostly from milk, wood and maize.

Source page: https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/excipients/

Fine chemicals · Pharmaceutical · No. 97

- Product family
- Feedstock: Crops and biomass
- not published as global tonnage
- HS 391239
 Fine chemicals · Pharmaceutical · Foundation · Matter

Most of a tablet is not medicine at all but milk sugar, wood cellulose and starch.

Chart: Illustration: Pharmaceutical excipients

##### Where it comes from

Chart: Map of where it comes from

Lactose is crystallised from cheese whey, cellulose from wood or cotton pulp, using about 1.1-1.3 t of pulp per tonne of MCC, and starch from maize.

##### Three things to know

1. Roquette bought IFF Pharma Solutions, maker of Avicel cellulose, for up to $2.85 billion in 2025.
2. India's excipient market is only about $400 million, small beside its huge generic output, and grows 6.9% a year.
3. After deaths from contaminated cough syrups, India made DEG and EG testing mandatory for exported syrups in 2023.

##### The journey

1. 1 **Farm and forest**Whey from cheese, wood pulp, maize
2. 2 **Primary processing**Lactose crystallised, cellulose hydrolysed, starch milled
3. 3 **Pharma refining**Milled or spray-dried under excipient GMP
4. 4 **Formulation**Blended with API, pressed and coated
5. 5 **Tablets**Fillers, binders, disintegrants and coatings
 Covered in [Pharmaceuticals and fermentation: from molecule to medicineChemicals](https://www.materialinsights.org/learn/chemicals/pharmaceuticals-and-fermentation/)

##### Go deeper pick a tab to open it in full

## Other sections

- [Overview](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/excipients/overview/index.md)
- [Correlation](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/excipients/correlation/index.md)
- [Production route](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/excipients/routes/index.md)
- [Production](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/excipients/production/index.md)
- [Feedstocks](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/excipients/feedstocks/index.md)
- [Cycles](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/excipients/cycles/index.md)
- [Trading](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/excipients/trading/index.md)
- [Movement](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/excipients/movement/index.md)
- [Regulation](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/excipients/regulation/index.md)
- [Characteristics](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/excipients/characteristics/index.md)
- [Emissions](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/excipients/emissions/index.md)
- [Relationships](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/excipients/links/index.md)