Dr. Karl Kolter, BASF head of Pharmaceutical Excipients Research and Development, was honored at the AAPS Annual Meeting and Exposition with the 2010 International Pharmaceutical Excipients Council Foundation (IPEC) Industry Research Achievement in Excipient Technology. Dr. Kolter received the newly established award in honor of his outstanding history of research into novel pharmaceutical excipients.

"This award is a very special endorsement of many years of excipient development research and makes me very proud," Dr. Karl Kolter commented. "It shows that our innovative work in this complex area is appreciated by the industry."

Dr. Kolter has been working for BASF since 1993. He has developed more than 22 novel pharmaceutical excipients and has published over 120 research papers.

Dr. Kolter's most recent accomplishments are Kollicoat IR, a film-coating system for tablets, and the novel excipient Soluplus - the new solubilizer launched in 2009 and the recipient of the Convention of Pharmaceutical Ingredients and Intermediates (CPhI) Silver Innovation Award. BASF's Soluplus helps customers in the pharmaceutical industry to develop and produce innovative drug products containing active ingredients that could not have been formulated with conventional excipients.

"This award is a tremendous motivation booster to keep on developing innovative excipients in the future," said Dr. Kolter.

BASF plans to continue launching at least one novel pharmaceutical excipient every year to reinforce the company's leadership in this area. It makes BASF one of the few remaining excipient manufacturers to conduct groundbreaking research into innovative new excipients and bring them to market on a regular basis.