OEM & ODM · CONTRACT MANUFACTURING

Multi-ingredient topicals are a manufacturing problem before they are a claim.

Formulation science increasingly describes the body as a network rather than a single pathway, and interest in multi-target design has moved from traditional practice into mainstream pharmaceutical research. For a contract manufacturer, that shift is not a marketing story. It is a production brief.

01What actually gets harder

Standardising a single molecule is a known problem. Keeping a dozen of them stable, adherent and reproducible for two years is a different discipline — and it is the one our process knowledge is built around.

Three Mast was founded in 1982 in Tainan, Taiwan, and has worked on topical dosage forms since then. Our Yongke plant holds a Certificate of GMP Compliance from Australia’s TGA for non-sterile dermal patches, and we are listed as the manufacturer for Australian listed medicines AUST L 522687 and AUST L 522689.

Whether a multi-ingredient approach is right for a given product is a question for the brand owner and the clinical or regulatory side. What we answer is narrower and more testable: can it be made, made stably, and made again.

02Four constraints we design against

01

Ingredient compatibility

The problem
A multi-ingredient topical carries botanical extracts, essential oils, resinous adhesive components and functional excipients in one matrix. Interactions do not grow with the number of ingredients — they grow with the number of pairs.
How we work
Compatibility is screened before a formulation is fixed, and stability is tracked on four axes at once: assay, adhesion, appearance and odour. Tracking assay alone misses what actually fails in a topical product.
What it means for you
What you receive is not a sample that worked once, but a formulation that still adheres, smells and looks right at the end of its shelf life.

02

Polarity routing

The problem
Lipophilic and hydrophilic components will find separate ways out of the wrong matrix. Forced into an unsuitable base, the result is bleed, adhesion failure, or a product that cannot be made at all.
How we work
We route components by polarity before anything else is decided, and let that determine the delivery format — not the other way round.
What it means for you
At proposal stage we tell you which direction your ingredient set points to, rather than selling a preferred format and adapting your formula to fit it.

03

Volatile retention

The problem
The compounds that determine how a product feels on skin are often the most volatile ones in it. They are lost during coating and drying — which is why a formulation can be correct on paper and flat in the hand.
How we work
Coating temperature, drying profile and order of addition are set against the volatility range of the sensory components; where that is not enough, the components are protected before they enter the matrix. Acceptance combines analytical data with blind sensory evaluation.
What it means for you
Sensory performance becomes reproducible across batches instead of varying with the line and the season.

04

Layered release

The problem
If everything is released at once, a product is strong for three minutes and absent afterwards. Multi-ingredient design only means something if different components act over different time scales.
How we work
Matrix viscosity, mass layer thickness and backing permeability are used to separate immediate from sustained release, and the two groups are placed accordingly.
What it means for you
Wear time is designed rather than discovered. An eight-hour product and a short, high-intensity product are treated as two different manufacturing problems.

03How a project is assessed

Projects are evaluated case by case rather than fitted to a catalog. We do not set a standard package or a fixed minimum order quantity in advance — packaging decisions, printed materials in particular, usually determine the workable floor more than the production run does.

Market
Where the product will be sold, and under which regulatory category there.
Channel
Who sells it — pharmacy, clinic, retail, cross-border — and what that channel requires.
Product
The formulation concept and the sensory and functional intent behind it.
Development
Scope of development and manufacturing, quantity and schedule.

Stages: inquiry → sampling → trial production → mass production. Schedule follows from the dosage form, the packaging route and the regulatory pathway in the destination market, so we give dates once those are defined.

04Manufacturing flow

  1. 01Compounding
  2. 02Coating
  3. 03Slitting
  4. 04Packaging
  5. 05Release

We do not publish internal line layouts, control interfaces or process parameters. Facility imagery on this site is photography of real equipment; we do not use AI-generated factory or production-line images.

05What we do not claim

  • We do not state or imply any therapeutic effect that the destination market has not approved.
  • Microneedle delivery reaches the stratum corneum; we do not describe it as injection into the body or delivery to the dermis.
  • Ultra-thin patches provide physical covering and moisture retention.
  • Products on our transdermal nutrient platform are not dietary supplements; we do not label daily intake or %DV.
  • Regulatory status in each market — medicine, cosmetic or general merchandise — is determined by that market. The client holds the market authorisation.

We manufacture to specification and document to audit.
Claims belong to the market, not to the factory.

06Starting a project

Target market, sales channel, product concept, and intended quantity and timing are enough to begin. Please do not send complete formulations or end-customer names in a first inquiry — we will tell you when a confidentiality agreement is in place and what level of detail is useful then.

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