Pharmaceutical Technology Europe-11-01-2006

The trend towards developing pharmaceutical products and their manufacturing processes in tandem supports optimized production. Such developments rely on gathering process-relevant information at an early stage and being able to draw on past and current processing experience. Here, we discuss how powder rheometers can make a real difference in building a database of powder properties and removing subjectivity.

Clean rooms are critical areas in bio/pharma facilities, and it is essential that users are responsible for their care and upkeep, and familiarize themselves with the relevant regulations.

Quality by design and PAT approaches are increasingly being used for the biotech manufacturing of medicines. Complex manufacturing processes can not only be controlled using PAT principles, but optimized with respect to both product quality and economic value. This column describes how the fermentation process is often the first to benefit from this type of implementation.

While e-mail is quick and convenient, it's too easy to hide behind and, ultimately, faceless.

A European Commission directive requires suppliers to incorporate information on medicines in formats suitable for blind and partially sighted people, although the associated standard has not been introduced yet. This article looks at some of the issues that will need to be addressed when the standard is adopted.

The ¤9.5 billion therapeutic antibody market comprises over a dozen antibodies that have been generated using recombinant genetic methods developed over the last 20 years.

This article investigates pharmaceutical applications of terahertz technology, specifically using techniques for solid dosage form analysis such as pulsed spectroscopy (to generate physical information and detect API changes) and pulsed imaging (to locate formulation impurities, and regulate tablet coating quality and thickness).