Manufacturing

The US Food and Drug Administration will hold a public meeting on November 14, 2007 to solicit comments about the proposed behind-the-counter (BTC) availability of drugs.

Contract manufacturers slim down to improve profitability.

Cardinal Health began construction on a $50 million expansion of its headquarters in Dublin, Ohio, on Oct. 3, 2007.

Ranbaxy received full market approval from the US Food and Drug Admnistration for its anti-infective agent ?Clarithromycin? oral suspension.

Company and People Notes: Thermo Fisher Scientific buys Priority Solutions International, Wyeth elects new president and CEO, more.

Transdermal delivery takes up once-forbidden compounds, reviving markets and creating formulation opportunities.

Change is inevitable, as is contract manufacturing. But which companies will survive the drifts?

Carl Zeiss MicroImaging (Thornwood, NY) recently introduced its "Colibri" light-emitting diode (LED) light source for fluorescence microscopy. The product is "the only LED light source optimized for white-field microscopy systems," says Becky Homan, product manager for biomedical light microscopy.

Amidst debate, the European Pharmacopoeia Commission is working to include physical or "functionality-related characteristics" of exipient materials in its monographs.

When it comes to designing and sourcing sustainable packaging, there are no simple answers. Sustainable packaging depends on a complex interaction of environmental, social, and economic considerations, which are influenced by geography and other factors such as renewability, compostability, biodegradability, weight, and performance.

To monitor and control processes or products, analytical methodology must be fit for purpose. An approach to apply quality by design principles to the design and evaluation of analytical methods has therefore been developed to meet these needs. This article features a downloadable template on which to conduct a failure mode effect analysis (FMEA).

Could sloppy due diligence practices hurt CMOs and their clients?

Our files pull up lost contracts, poor competitive tactics, and an over-ambitious employee.

Nonpharmaceutical manufacturers find ways to make environmentally sound packaging.

Regulators and industry professionals provide a guide for identifying and measuring impurities.

Through consideration of the ionic equilibria of acids and bases, one may readily calculate the formation constant of a salt species solely on the basis of knowledge of the pKA value of the acid and the pKB value of the base.

Expanded access to drugs for seniors has increased demand and focused attention on costs.

The material of construction is a factor in the recovery of residue in cleaning validation. An analysis of existing recovery data showed that recovery factors for drug products on various materials of construction may be categorized into several groupings.

Revisions to the United States Pharmacopeia's (USP) uniformity test require manufacturers to establish new acceptance limits. The authors present their method for calculating acceptance limits consistent with USP's revised content-uniformity test requirements.

Security, the environment, ageing populations, the bio-boom and cost control are just a few of the drivers that will influence pharmaceutical packaging for the remainder of this decade.

The completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003 led to a flurry of predictions regarding the application of pharmacogenomics to drug development. With US and European regulatory authorities finally on the verge of issuing guidance on the use of pharmacogenomics, drug development is all set to change.

Last year, a monoclonal antibody, TGN1412, led to potentially fatal adverse effects in a small group of Phase I volunteers in London. In the wake of this incident, EMEA has drawn up new guidelines that could lead to demands for more data on novel biologics. They may have implications for both manufacturing and clinical trials of biopharmaceuticals that are considered to pose a high risk to patients.

The UK, with its high quality educational capabilities in bioscience, has an opportunity to become the global hub of bioscience training, but must act quickly to secure this position.

The authors review methods for reducing analysis time and increasing throughput that are reliable and maintain data integrity.

Polysaccharide-based chiral stationary phases have been developed that comprise chiral selectors immobilized on their support rather than being physically coated. These materials are completely solvent stable, thereby increasing selectivity and and enabling the development of new chiral selectors that have been too unstable in a coated form for general use.