Pharmaceutical Technology Europe-01-01-2004

Despite global economic problems during the last 2 years and continued industry-wide lay-offs in the manufacturing sector, the pharmaceutical industry workforce continues at a slow and steady pace. Employees, however, seem ever more wary of their job security.

This article reflects on the challenges that predicting powder flowability currently pose to the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry and considers some of the benefits that can accrue when companies overcome these issues.

This month, readers are offered the opportunity to take part in a quiz. How many predictions from an old blueprint for the European pharmaceutical industry were correct? Remember, no cheating.

Based on a German initiative, an international standard on quality management systems for the primary packaging materials of medicinal products is discussed in this article. This new directive will help to standardize the production of primary packaging materials by defining global requirements.