Analytics

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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

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This article looks at the use of bracketing and matrixing to lower the number of stability samples required and, consequently, reduce the cost of sample production, testing and management. There is a common misconception that regulatory authorities will not accept such methods, but there is actually an International Conference on Harmonization guideline (ICH Q1D) on the subject. In fact, many of these designs have already been accepted and FDA members were among the first to describe matrixing.

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A new Good Automated Manufacturing Practice (GAMP) guide on IT Infrastructure Control & Compliance was launched in Chicago (IL, USA) 23 August 2005.1 The guide is intended to support pharmaceutical companies in their effort to establish a well-defined and compliant infrastructure. This article discusses different aspects of the guide that may support your organization in getting — and keeping — your infrastructure under control.

Formulators currently face numerous challenges in nanosuspension development in terms of ensuring safety, efficacy, and stability. Presenters at Wednesday's AAPS symposium offered strategies for addressing these challenges, including setting meaningful particle-size specifications, selecting the method to measure particles in nanosuspensions (especially for nonspherical particles), gaining a meaningful particle-size distribution, and determining the particle size from such distributions.

As a pharmaceutical formulation tool, molecular simulation is currently in its early infancy. Nonetheless, presenters at Wednesday?s AAPS Annual Meeting and Exposition demonstrated that the technology is beginning to attract some interest. The topic was discussed in a presentation titled "Application of Molecular Simulations to Formulation Development and Stability Prediction."

Artium Technologies' (Sunnyvale, CA, www.artium.com) new diode-pumped phase Doppler interferometry systems use solid-state lasers incorporated into transmitting optics, eliminating losses that can result from fiber coupling, alignment, and degradation. According to Atrium, the advantage of this approach to optical design is improved precision and a larger dynamic range, with higher resolution over the entire range.

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In the spirit that a good review of the fundamentals is always beneficial, the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists' Annual Meeting and Exposition featured an early morning discussion about the basic aspects of dissolution testing, including common sources of errors and deviations. The well-attended session proved that dissolution testing remains a topic of interest, especially as the industry continues to extend its application to media other than solid dosage forms, most notably soft gels.

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When it comes to developing a robust lyophilization process, formulators can "pay now or pay later," says Jeff Schwegman, PhD, founder and chief scientific officer for BioConvergence. Because 30% of new drugs in clinical trials are biotech-based therapeutics (compared with 7% 10 years ago), more than ever, the US Food and Drug Administration is paying close attention to lyophilization data and questioning pharmaceutical companies about their development cycles, especially cycle development transfer, shelf-temperature mapping, dryer-to-dryer comparison studies, formulation time, process validation, and cycle deviation. Consequently, this is pushing formulators to optimize formulation variables, conduct additional testing during early-stage development, and understanding critical process parameters, equipment qualifications, and manufacturing conditions that can influence formulation behavior at a large scale. Not taking the time or effort to achieve these goals during early development could lead to redundancies in formulation work - a reality observed too often in today's practices.

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The EU ATEX Directive 1999/92/EC (ATEX 137) regarding the minimum requirements to protect the health and safety of workers potentially at risk from explosive atmospheres came into European law in January 2000. In the UK, the ATEX 137 Directive has been implemented as part of the Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres Regulations (DSEARs), which were issued in December 2002.

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Process industries are faced with increasing demands for product safety, improved quality, efficiency and profitability. The chemical, pharma and cosmetic industries are no exception.

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Virtual labels eliminate the need for troublesome transfer ribbons or inkjet fluids, which are inherent with traditional labelling technologies.

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Frequency modulation spectroscopy is a nondestructive technology for determining the water activity of pharmaceutical samples. This article discusses the various pharmaceutical applications of frequency modulation spectroscopy, offers comparisons with various traditional water activity measurement techniques, and presents an assessment of various instrument performance elements.

Chemical purity is the most important quality characteristic of a pharmaceutical substance. This article describes the latest scientific and technological advances to meet recent pharmacopoeial and regulatory requirements regarding the control of organic impurities in synthetically produced active substances. Future developments and suggestions for those working in quality control and raw material selection are discussed.

Dust extraction and centralized vacuum cleaning systems vary in their design, performance and costs. Different companies have different approaches to their design, however, there are some basic rules that must be followed if these systems are going to be immediately effective and avoid future problems.