This was a long-term product development project, and the goal was to find a solution on how to add a new active ingredient, as well as create its formulation.

Together with a major global company we have worked on the development of a new product in the personal health care segment. In this project we proved early on that we are capable of managing and performing projects that run for more than a year. We have used our core expertise and several of the instruments available at Lund University.

Our aim was to find a new way to introduce an active agent. We were also well informed on the formulation strategy so we could add our comments and suggestions to this throughout the project.

We worked in close collaboration with the company and professors at Lund University for over a year. During this time we reached several milestones and reported on these at our client’s facilities. We had the perspective of a physical chemist. Our solution depended on the molecules’ different characteristics in two environments, as a dispersion on the shelf and when used in a saline solution.

Dynamic light scattering, DLS and cryo-TEM (transmission electron microscopy) were used to characterize particle size distributions and shapes. The proportions resulting in valuable cubic and hexagonal structures were found by small angle x-ray scattering (SAXS). The rheology measurements were needed to make sure the final product could be processed and used as specified.

Now, the formulation we developed has moved on internally and passed several crucial evaluation steps where one was a panel test of potential future users. We are indeed very proud.