CHAPTER 3: Soft Capsules

Soft capsules are also commonly known as soft or elastic, one-piece, gelatin capsules, softgel capsules or softgels. Soft capsules are different from liquid-filled hard capsules in that the soft capsule is formed, filled and sealed in a single operation. This chapter will focus on pharmaceutical applications for the dosage form, from a platform technology point of view, rather than focusing heavily on what can be achieved with fill formulations, such as lipid technology. The chapter briefly describes recent advances in technology to use materials other than gelatin as the shell polymer. The author celebrated 30 years in softgel technology in 2016.