The application discloses a process for the manufacture of mechanically-stable, readily-disintegratable tablets made of small preformed, preferably rounded, particles or pellets containing a high percentage of active ingredient in which--prior to compression--the particles are coated with an aqueous or aqueous/organic suspension containing water-soluble polyvinyl alcohol having an ester content of 19.4 to 6.7%, a disintegrant, and finely-divided cellulose, the remainder being excipients such as additional colloids, adjuvants, dyes, and/or flavors and the suspending liquid, and dried, the stable but readily-friable tablet product thus-produced, and a method of delivering an active ingredient by the employment of such a tablet for oral ingestion.