Notes

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A pharmaceutical advertisement titled “Super Disintegrant” features a dramatic blue splash erupting upward from what appears to be a tablet in water, visually suggesting rapid dissolution.

[transcription]

#Super Disintegrant

##NOW NF*

###POLYPLASDONE XL™ Crospovidone

Here’s a tablet disintegrant that functions in use levels as low as 0.5%. It’s an insoluble form of Povidone USP that retains PVP’s excellent compatibility with pharmaceutical excipients and active ingredients, but has markedly different physical properties.

Because Polyplasdone XL™ Crospovidone is insoluble in water, it exhibits virtually no tendency toward gel formation. And because it has high capillary activity, it draws water rapidly into the tablet and swells instantly, resulting in spontaneous disintegration.

What’s more, Polyplasdone XL™ disintegrant is highly compressible and does not contribute to problems with binding, hardness or abrasion resistance, tablet capping or lubricants.

Polyplasdone XL Super Disintegrant is in commercial production and is currently used in drug products available in most pharmacies. For detailed literature on physical and toxicological properties, write GAF Corporation, Pharmaceutical Products Dept., 140 New York, NY 10020

*A National Formulary (NF) monograph for Crospovidone has been included in Addendum 4 of the second Supplement to USP XX/NF XV.

GAF Pharmaceutical Chemicals

© 1981 GAF Corporation

[additional notes] - Violet Webber

This ad stood out to me because of the intensity of the visual. The dramatic explosion appears to represent a chemical burst, framing the product as speecy and efficient. Instead of showing the product itself, the ad implies that the audience already understands what a disintegrant does. The visual is also quite chaotic, fitting with the title of "super”. 

Superdisintegrants improve the efficacy of solid dosage forms by enhancing their dissolution rate. Crospovidone is used as both a disintegrant and a binder. It can be used medically, in alcoholic beverages, and in pharmaceuticals. 

• https://www.researchgate.net/publication/287765505_Superdisintegrants_An_overview

• https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/chapter/bookseries/pii/S0099542808606929