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The World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2010 described counterfeit medicines as those which are “Deliberately and fraudulently mislabelled with respect to identity and/or source. Counterfeiting can apply to both branded and generic products and counterfeit products may include products with the correct ingredients or with the wrong ingredients, without active…
10 March 2015 | By Özge Atılgan Karakulak and Zeynep Koray, Gün + Partners
You are waiting in line, trying to decipher several different languages spoken around you: English, Dutch, German, Arabic, French… This scene is not from an airport but rather from a Turkish hospital: thousands of foreigners, communicating through translators, visit healthcare institutions every day and numbers are increasing exponentially; in the…
10 March 2015 | By Michael Weichel, Kristina Ellwanger, Ivica Fucek, Stefan H.J. Knackmuss, Erich Rajkovic, Uwe Reusch, Claudia Wall, and Eugene A. Zhukovsky, Affimed Therapeutics AG
The bi-specific antibody format is becoming the preferred antibody modality for current development projects in the pharmaceutical industry. This is due to an unsurpassed increase in functional activity relative to traditional mono-specific monoclonal antibodies, and a breakthrough in manufacturability enabled by novel designs. One such bi-specific format, the TandAb, produces…
10 March 2015 | By Michael Rommerskirchen, Boehringer Ingelheim
Nowadays, professional quality and process data trending is key for science-based pharmaceutical development and manufacturing. Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA) issued revised process validation guidance to enforce recurring data analysis as a regulatory core requirement1,2: Periodic product and process monitoring, also known…
10 March 2015 | By Andrew R. Martin and Warren H. Finlay, University of Alberta
The development of orally-inhaled drug products is a complex endeavour spanning multiple technical and medical fields. For the treatment of respiratory diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), the inhalation delivery route permits the drug to be directly targeted to the afflicted organ, namely the lung. As…
Aqueous, multiple-use, non-sterile drug products are susceptible to microbial contamination during their shelf life. To protect these products from this potential hazard to patients, they are formulated with antimicrobial preservatives. Other product attributes employed using the hurdle concept to prevent microbial contamination include: low pH, low redox potential, reduced storage…
This free-to-view NIR In-Depth Focus reveals the fascinating evolution and future perspectives of near-infrared technology in the lively opening article, plus we examine the benefits of combining NIR spectroscopy with process analytical technology...
In Issue #6 2014: Polymerase Chain Reaction, Imaging, PAT in-depth focus, Screening in-depth focus, Microbiology Series and much more...
This free-to-view Screening In-Depth Focus is packed with articles that will give you a greater understanding of interesting topics such as the identification of compounds that protect against free radicals, advancements in sandwich immunoassay techniques and hit validation and optimisation...
This PAT In-Depth Focus explores current challenges posed by the slow uptake of Process Analytical Technology within the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industries. The advantages of incorporating PAT into the pharmaceutical process are highlighted in two informative articles, and possible solutions to its lack of popularity surmised...
23 December 2014 | By Eurofins BioPharma
The largest network of harmonised bio/pharmaceutical gross manufacturing product (GMP) testing laboratories worldwide, Eurofins BioPharma Product Testing enables companies to advance candidates from development through to commercialisation while ensuring regulatory compliance, cost effectiveness and achievement of timelines...
23 December 2014 | By Axel Ducret, Biochemist
This article will focus on some of the critical aspects of transition biomarkers discovered in classical (MS-based) proteomics workflows and on the challenges to be met before validated assays can become more routine in the clinical laboratory...
23 December 2014 | By Dr Tim Sandle, Bio Products Laboratory
This article surveys some of the recent developments in regulatory requirements and standards that have taken place during the past 12 months, highlighting those aspects that are of relevance to pharmaceutical microbiology...
23 December 2014 | By Paul McCracken & Stephen Krause
The cost of drug discovery and development, depending upon the size of a given company, has been estimated upwards of $5 billion. Hay et al. recently published a review of clinical development success rates showing only a 10.4% likelihood of regulatory approval of all drugs entering Phase I, 64.5% of…
23 December 2014 | By Natalia Meani and Manuela Vecchi
Recognised as one of the major scientific breakthroughs of the 20th century, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a quick and simple method to create, in a test tube, millions of copies of a given DNA segment from a complex mixture of genetic material. This method has greatly stimulated biochemical, molecular…
