Manufacturing

Plastic has emerged gradually as a viable packaging material, even for sterile products. Acceptance of plastics has been encouraged by blow–fill–seal (BFS) technology, which provides scientific and commercial benefits. BFS technology has, however, brought new challenges for formulation-development scientists. This article highlights the specific concerns for the development of sterile liquid products and the formulation strategies to address these concerns.

Pharmaceutical companies are facing increased competition, cost pressures, and a need to improve the performance of their manufacturing operations. Lean manufacturing offers methods, tools, and heuristics for improved efficiency in manufacturing. Process analytical technology offers alternative analysis techniques that could greatly improve manufacturing quality and efficiency. Mathematical tools exist for assessing the efficiency of manufacturing processes. Internal benchmarking is recommended for determining the efficiency and tracking improvements in pharmaceutical manufacturing.

Protein formulation specialists have long sensed that something big could be just around the corner. Over the past few decades, countless companies have attempted to bring to market new protein therapeutics that offer improvements-be they more patient friendly, more effective, or easier to manufacture-over traditional formulations. Earlier this year, the launch of Pfizer's "Exubera" pulmonary insulin met this anticipation head on. The fast-acting, inhaled-powder form of recombinant human insulin brought hope to the millions of diabetic patients waiting for an alternative to injections.

There is a growing need for patient-compliant dosage forms within the cancer therapeutics and biotechnology areas. Ease of administration, enhanced therapeutic efficacy, and reduced side effects are factors that differentiate drug delivery products from conventional dosage forms and provide a competitive advantage. This article reviews salient trends in the parenteral drug delivery sector within the realms of a changing regulatory environment, drivers to growth, and recent advances in this field. Challenges associated with bringing parenteral drug delivery concepts to commercialization are discussed.

More CMOs look to proprietary delivery technologies to enhance profitability.

In view of the nature of its complexity, it might be desirable to apply FDA's process analytical technology to lyophilization.

The increasing popularity of orally disintegrating tablets has led to growing interest in the advantages of superdisintegrants. This article presents some practical considerations in selecting these ingredients.

UK science has an outstanding record and we remain strong internationally in terms of achievement, productivity and efficiency.

Developed in the 1950s as a means to survive and compete against the giants of the automotive sector, lean manufacturing helped Toyota evolve from a small-volume producer (with little capital) to become a high-volume manufacturer in a process-rich environment. Toyota achieved this by using developments such as total production maintenance (TPM), just-in-time (JIT), Kanban, value stream mapping and Kaizen events.1 A summary of some of the lean terminology is shown in Table 1.

Aptuit, Inc. (Greenwich, CT) has agreed to acquire the assets and operations of EaglePicher Pharmaceutical Services (EPPS, Lenexa, KS) as part of Aptuit?s strategies to build capabilities in active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) development and drug substance manufacturing.

The Bulk Pharmaceuticals Task Force (BPTF), an affiliate organization of the Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers Association (SOCMA, Washington, DC) submitted a citizen petition to the US Food and Drug Administration (Washington, DC) requesting the agency to increase inspections of drug manufacturing facilities located outside of the United States.

High-containment manufacturing for highly potent active pharmaceutical ingredients (HPAPIs) represents a niche, but growing niche, in API manufacture. Strategies on serving this sector were discussed at a recent program, ?High-Potency Active Ingredients: Realizing the Opportunities,? organized by the Drug, Chemical, and Associated Technologies Association (Robbinsville, NJ) in conjunction with Pharmaceutical Technology.

UCB SA has offered EUR 4.4 billion ($5.64 billion) in cash and stocks to acquire Schwarz Pharma AG.

Altana AG plans to sell Altana Pharma AG and its entire pharmaceuticals business to Nycomed for EUR 4.5 billion (about $5.7 billion).

As with pharmaceutical manufacturing as a whole, a risk-based approach is important in manufacturing highly hazardous or potent compounds. Industry groups are working with US Food and Drug Administration (Rockville, MD) to develop a baseline guide for a risk-management approach to determine containment controls required to minimize cross contamination.

UK biopharmaceutical manufacturing boost

Specialty Pharmaceutical Company Bentley Pharmaceuticals has entered into an agreement with Cardinal Health for the scale-up of clinical supplies for Bentley's intranasal insulin product candidate.

Albemarle Corporation signed an agreement with DSM Pharmaceutical Products to buy the assets and the fine chemistry services and pharma chemicals business associated with DSM's South Haven, Michigan facility.

MedImmune, Inc. has broken ground on an expansion to its biologics manufacturing facility in Frederick, Maryland. The $250-million expansion is the first phase of a multi-phase construction project that MedImmune announced last fall.

Arlington, VA (Sept. 12)-At the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists meeting here, &quote;Real World Applications of PAT and QbD in Drug Process Development and Approval" (Sept. 11-12), chemical engineer and process modeler Michael L. Thompson, PhD, described how Procter & Gamble (West Chester, OH, www.pg.com) applies these mathematical tools to increase product quality and reduce development and trouble-shooting time for consumer and pharmaceutical products.

Washington, DC (Sept. 12)-The Office of New Drug Quality Assessment (ONDQA) in the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) has approved one new drug application (NDA) under its CMC Pilot Program and has two more applications are under review. The pilot was established last year to provide an opportunity for FDA and industry to explore strategies for including Quality by Design (QbD) principles and process analytical technology approaches in regulatory submissions, explained ONDQA deputy director Chi-wan Chen at the PDA-FDA Joint Regulatory Conference here

Mid-size companies are forcing through their market positions by developing their niche competencies and their flexibilities to be recognized as serious market contenders.

The overall market size of the Southeast Asia region totals $7 billion, with a projected compound annual growth rate of about 13% through 2010.

For once, casting originators against generic players might end up strengthening the industry across the board.

As the pace of product development accelerates, the approach to dissolution-method development must advance beyond a manual method and an assay. A natural progression of the method-development process must include the transfer of the manual method onto automated instrumentation.