Process for Pan Coating Small Batches of Tablets

A method is presented which permits the pan coating of small lots of tablets with production-size characteristics. This is readily accomplished by coating the tablets containing the active ingredient simultaneously with placebo tablets of the same dimensions. The procedure involves incorporating a small amount of reduced iron in the placebo, combining both the active and placebo tablets, coating the mixed batch of tablets and finally separating the active from placebo tablets by passing them through a magnetic selector.