Q&A with Babu Padmanabhan, STEER Engineering

Q&A with

Babu Padmanabhan, Managing Director and Chief Knowledge Officer of STEER Engineering

PharmTech:

How has the increasing focus on biopharmaceuticals affected your business?

Padmanabhan:

Our organization supports the bio/pharmaceutical industry by improving the effectiveness of the oral, skin, and intramuscular drug-delivery systems. We build the tools for engineering sustained and controlled release of drugs, enhanced bioavailability, drug-eluting stents, and implant-based, innovative drug-release systems. These methods are recent developments and have potential in both small-molecule drugs and biopharmaceuticals.

PharmTech:

How is your company responding to regulators' intensifying emphasis on inspections and product quality?

Padmanabhan:

Because we build tools for developing and manufacturing drug products, our equipment is built with full range of instrumentation and analytical systems that are compliant with current global regulatory requirements. We provide support in meeting the requirements of the design-, installation-, operational-, and performance-qualification protocols of various companies. Because of our exposure to many such protocols, our support to companies move them towards a better set of requirements (i.e., exceeding current requirements and preparing for the future).

PharmTech:

Do you see a new industry trend emerging?

Padmanabhan:

Continuous manufacturing is gaining significant attention among the pharmaceutical industry. Life-cycle management of existing drugs has been one of the current areas of focus. There is growing interest in equipment that supports the manufacturing of potent compounds with containment.