Process and Automation

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Automation took hold gradually in the life-science industry. Its adoption brought the industry innovations and improved efficiency. Recent years witnessed the emergence of batch-automation systems and the development of standards for automation. The authors discuss the major changes automation brought to the industry and examine the rapid pace of technological development.

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.

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

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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.

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Quality by design and PAT approaches are increasingly being used for the biotech manufacturing of medicines. Complex manufacturing processes can not only be controlled using PAT principles, but optimized with respect to both product quality and economic value. This column describes how the fermentation process is often the first to benefit from this type of implementation.

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This article examines what other industries have done to address the challenges associated with successfully implementing the principles and concepts of process analytical technology, particularly the specific elements of measurement, analysis, and control. The author explores how other industries' approaches can be applied directly to pharmaceutical manufacturing.

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Modeling conducted in the process development and early commercialization stages can increase process efficiency and lead to process-control improvement. A virtual plant environment, running on a PC, can incorporate the same industrial control systems and configuration expertise used in manufacturing and helps many parts of process analytical technology. It also can make possible the enlightened use of technologies such as model predictive control, first-principal models, neural networks, and multivariate statistical process control.

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Thermal effusivity and power consumption may help predict granulation end point in high-shear granulators. In this study, power consumption was monitored and compared with percent relative standard deviation (RSD) on thermal effusivity measured at-line. Lactose monohydrate, microcrystalline cellulose, and magnesium oxide were granulated, and the effect of load size on granule growth in a fixed-volume granulator was evaluated using three load levels. Load size, liquid addition rate, and impeller speed were measured, and the correlation among RSD on effusivity, power consumption, mean granule specific surface area, and granule compressibility index were determined.

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Contract manufactures are faced with multiple challenges when determining whether to implement process analytical technology into their clients' or their own infrastructure.

The process analytical technology (PAT) initiative has been percolating at the US Food and Drug Administration for a long time, explained FDA's John E. Simmons at the AAPS Annual Meeting and Exposition on Wednesday. "If you think of PAT as an isolated set of applications, I think you are missing the point," Simmons said. "The FDA would like PAT to become commonplace?not to be an initiative, but common practice."

The C-SOC team must develop a network of committed industrial partners who will participate in the direction, execution, and evaluation of research and educational activities.