Analytics

Latest News


Biologics Quality Control: The Growing Need for Accessible Proteomics

There is a great need for sensitive, precise, and easily accessible analytical detection techniques for protein sequencing.

Biologics Quality Control: The Growing Need for Accessible Proteomics

Emerging Therapies Drive Analytical Advancements

The emergence of mRNA vaccines and cell and gene therapies has pushed innovation in analytical methods.

Emerging Therapies Drive Analytical Advancements

Analyzing Exabytes

Effective analytics will eliminate failures, deviations, and non-conformances.

 Analyzing Exabytes

Interphex2007, New York, NY (Apr. 25)-One of the challenges facing pharmaceutical manufacturers is how to implement process analytical technology (PAT) into their commercial manufacturing processes. Michael Abad, engineering section manager, Abbott Laboratories shared insight from a project within Abbott in his presentation "Engineering for PAT" at Interphex today.

i3-415112-1408654889827.gif

The concept of Acceptable Analytical Practices (AAPs) was developed by the Analytical Technical Group of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America to share information about how the pharmaceutical industry has implemented chemistry, manufacturing, and controls and quality guidances of the International Conference on Harmonization and worldwide regulatory authorities. The AAP process identifies and addresses critical issues in which guidance is lacking, ambiguous, or contradictory. AAPs were designed to provide a forum where one could learn from the experience of experts in pharmaceutical analysis and enhance the understanding of analytical practices that reflect good science and sound regulatory compliance. This article summarizes the discussion points from a meeting regarding the Justification of Specifications topic.

i4-407613-1408662962970.jpg

Implementing process analytical technology principles can be a challenging task. This article presents a straightforward approach.

Brussels (Feb. 13)-The European Generic Medicines Association raised concerns over what it terms ?the serious lack? of resources available to member states in the European Union (EU) to deal with the regulatory workload and bottleneck in new registrations caused by the new Decentralized Procedure (DCP) for approving drugs in Europe.

i8_t-400647-1408670328764.jpg

The objectives of this study were to prepare and characterize inclusion complexes of lovastatin with hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin (HPβ-CD) and to study the effect of the complexes on the dissolution rate of lovastatin (LVS). The findings suggest that LVS's poor dissolution profile can be overcome by preparing its inclusion complex with HPβ-CD.

i8_t-400646-1408670335852.jpg

For solid oral-dosage forms, water testing usually is performed to control the chemical, physical, or microbiological properties of the drug product. Measurements of total water as made with Karl Fischer (KF) techniques is not needed and water-activity often will provide a better correlation with changes in chemical, physical, or microbiological properties than KF techniques. In these cases, water activity testing can easily replace KF testing. Water-activity measurements are nondestructive, require little labor, and the equipment required is generally inexpensive. Only a few simple checks are needed to ensure the validity of measurements. Strategies for implementing water activity testing are described.

i3_t-408852-1408661710574.jpg

Raman spectroscopy has become a commonly used technique for physicochemical analysis that possesses many advantages over other analytical techniques. It is a very attractive characterization tool, not least because it enables measurements in water. However, very few examples of its application in an aqueous environment exist in literature. This paper provides some recent applications of Raman spectroscopy in pharmaceutical material and process characterization when water is present.

i4-408854-1408661697465.jpg

Terpenes are widely used in topical preparations. This paper focuses on the skin penetration of terpenes depending on their physicochemical properties and influence of the type of dermatological vehicle that was used. The structure of human skin and the skin penetration process is also briefly described.

The US Food and Drug Administration has modified its requirements for drug pedigrees accompanying wholesale pharmaceutical transactions, following a US District Court preliminary injunction barring the agency from enforcing certain provisions of the rule that was to have gone into effect on Dec. 1.

i8_t-390985-1408681435216.jpg

The US Pharmacopeia (USP), the Japanese Pharmacopoeia, and the European Pharmacopoeia "Microbial Limits Tests" are in the final stages of harmonization. The harmonized USP chapters are slated for implementation in 2009. This article describes the harmonized USP Chapters <61> "Microbial Enumeration," <62> "Absence of Specified Microorganisms," and <1111> "Microbiological Attributes of Nonsterile Pharmaceutical Products," and suggests they will likely require some revalidation of existing methodologies. Companies should put plans in place immediately for this work and show consistent progress towards this goal.

i4-392073-1408680796006.jpg

The needle and syringe have long been the standard delivery technology for vaccines. However, a confluence of market factors is driving new interest in alternative delivery systems that hold the potential to meet one or more of the following goals: improved antigen utilization, higher quality immune response, better stability and improved patient acceptance. Of particular interest are microneedle systems, otherwise referred to as microstuctured transdermal systems (MTS), that provide for targeted delivery of the vaccine formulation directly to antigen-presenting cells within the epidermis. This article provides a brief overview of MTS technology with an emphasis on solid-coated MTS for vaccine delivery.

i8_t-392205-1408680756776.jpg

EFPIA's 'Mock P.2' document aims to show how the role of 'quality risk management' and process analytical technology as an enabler for quality by design can be presented in a common technical document format. This article summarizes the main features of this document, and explains the key concepts and principles used.

London (Nov. 22)-The European Medicines Agency reports a defect in some vials of Herceptin (trastuzumab), the anticancer treatment by Roche, which have been distributed in Europe. As a result, The EMEA's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use outlined a plan, formulated in conjunction with Roche, for the visually reinspecting and replacing defective vials.