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## F o r H e a l t h & W e l l n e s s T H E U N S U N G I N G R E D I E N T S 

While FMC does not manufacture drugs, vitamins or nutritional supplements, we have long been a leader in helping the pharmaceutical industry create and market consumable products from renewable biopolymers. Our pharmaceutical customers represent a significant segment of our Specialty Chemicals business – and we take seriously our role in providing the right chemistry to serve their consumers’ essential health needs. 

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If we don’t make pharma- ceuticals, what do  we make? 

One category is excipients – inactive substances that bind a product together, add bulk to high-potency active ingredients, speed or slow absorption in the body, or activate the product’s dissolving process. Excipients commonly take the form of tablet binders, suspension aids, super-disintegrants and controlled-release coatings. Our Avicel ®  brand continues to be the leading binder of dry tablets. 

We also have developed and commercialized new soft capsule technology that utilizes carrageenan. These new soft capsules are being used for vitamins and other supplements. 

Today we are in the advanced development stages of new alginate-based soft capsules for pharmaceuticals. And our ultrapure biopolymers have numerous biomedical applications, including tissue engineering, cell encapsulation, and medical devices. 

FMC lithium plays a role, too, as it is used for synthesizing cholesterol-reducing drugs. We have constructed a butyllithium plant in India and one in China to serve the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry in these expanding markets. And lithium carbonate is the active ingredient in the preferred treatment of bipolar disorder. 

Our chemistry is largely taken for granted by most consumers but it is an essential component in the practical consumption of many pharmaceuticals. For FMC, demand for this chemistry parallels consumers’ ever- increasing health consciousness and the need for medicines to manage acute or chronic pain, particularly as average life spans continue to rise. Coupled with demand growth in rapidly developing economies, the market indicators for this sector are highly favorable. 

Today we are investing in our core business to maintain our position as a high-quality, premium supplier. We are adding new capacity and new capabilities to improve our service and speed to market for our customers. 

