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5 September 2014 | By Marco Casteleijn & Dominique Richardson, University of Helsinki
Pharmaceutical biotechnology is big business; it currently consists of 1/6 of the total volume of the pharmaceutical market and continues to grow steadily. Expression of therapeutic proteins is mainly done in living cells, although ‘cell free protein synthesis’ (CFPS) or ‘in-vitro transcription translation’ (IVTT) is beginning to emerge as an…
5 September 2014 | By Dr. John H. Kalivas, Editor for the Journal of Chemometrics and Applied Spectroscopy.
In the pharmaceutical industry, it is necessary to control, in a tight range, the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) content of products, e.g., tablets or other powder blends.
5 September 2014 | By Driton Vllasaliu and Ishwar Singh, University of Lincoln
The use of materials in nano-scale dimensions is proving to be a promising approach to overcome drug delivery challenges. ‘Nanomedicine’ technologies are gradually achieving commercial success and reaching the clinic. Sub-micron nanocarriers have the potential to ferry the therapeutic to its site of action and in this process overcome the…
5 September 2014 | By Dr. Stephen McGrath, Teva Pharmaceuticals Ireland (TPI)
Organisations are constantly striving to drive down costs while maintaining the quality of their products and services. In recent years, much has been written in both the academic and practitioner literature on the application of Lean principles for the elimination of waste and focusing of energies on value-creating activities.
5 September 2014 | By Ryan Gosselin & Nicolas Abatzoglou, Pfizer Industrial Research Chair, University of Sherbrooke / Philip Quinn, Pfizer Industrial Research Chair, University of Sherbrooke and Process Analytical Sciences Group, Pfizer Canada / Joanny Salvas & Jean-Sébastien Simard, Process Analytical Sciences Group, Pfizer Canada
Pharmaceutical product manufacturing is a conservative environment because of the obligations to abide by rigorous operation protocols aimed at insuring the highest possible product quality. A relatively recent initiativeguidance, from the U.S. FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has encouraged innovation and development of PATs (Process Analytical Technologies) for improved process…
In Issue #3 2014: Pharmaceutical freeze-drying, Self-amplifying mRNA vaccines, Polymorph myths, Microbiology focus, NMR for isotope profiling, Manufacturing with QbD 2.0, Single-cell mRNA-Sequencing, qPCR focus, Powder Flow...
In this free-to-view in-depth focus: How to deal with non-sterile results in aseptic processing, Risk Profiling and Proactive Response (RPPR) to Bio-contamination in GMP classified and controlled areas, Microbiology Roundtable...
In this free-to-view in-depth focus: Prime time for qPCR – raising the quality bar, PCR to diagnose infectious disease, plus qPCR Roundtable...
An effective quality risk management (QRM) process ensures proactive identification and control of potential issues that may arise during development and commercialisation. Where quality is defined as the degree to which a set of intrinsic properties of a drug product, its underpinning manufacturing process, and any supporting processes fulfils the…
In a pharmaceutical freeze drying process, it is mandatory to preserve product quality. This means that for a given formulation that has to be freeze dried, the temperature has to remain below a limit value corresponding to the eutectic temperature for a product that crystallises after freezing, with the goal…
Influenza viruses are members of the Orthomyxoviridae family and are a major cause of respiratory tract disease in humans and many animal species. There are three influenza virus types that cause human disease: A, B and C. Type A are further subtyped based on the antigenicity of the hemagglutinin (HA)…
The past quarter of a century has seen an enormous increase in the number of papers on the behaviour of the organic solid state, particularly those concerning pharmaceutical polymorphs and solvates. High profile patent cases (ranitidine hydrochloride, paroxetine hydrochloride) combined with product polymorph issues (ritonavir), all of which have carried…
Fraudulent misrepresentation, substitution or imitation of premium products has always been a problem for both the regulatory authorities and the pharmaceutical industry. The task of finding and preventing counterfeit products is particularly challenging1,2. Several analytical techniques are available to help characterise pharmaceutical compounds: physical profile; X-ray diffraction; infrared spectroscopy; mass…
3 July 2014 | By José Menezes, Institute of Biotechnology and Bioenginerring, IST, Universidade de Lisboa / Francisca Gouveia and Pedro Felizardo, 4Tune Engineering Ltd
Pharma and BioPharma industries are aware of the impact of production processes on sustainability of business operations. To improve performance, companies have recognised that it is necessary to better understand the drivers of both costs and revenues and the actions that can be put in place to address them.
3 July 2014 | By René Dirks and Hendrik Marks, Department of Molecular Biology, Radboud Institute for Molecular Life Sciences (RIMLS)
Biomedical research often involves the use of cell lines that can be cultured in a laboratory. Individual cells within such cell lines often share a similar morphology. A remarkable exception are in vitro cultured mouse Embryonic Stem Cells (mESCs) – pluripotent cells derived from the blastocyst stage of the mouse…
