Emerging trends in pharmaceutical manufacturing technology

Abstract

With the extremely high average development costs of innovative medicines, the pharmaceutical industry faces unprecedented challenges and is under constant pressure to optimize the drug development process, as consequence of increased competition and healthcare costs. Rapid development of the emerging markets, progress in drug research, the rise in generics production, the availability of high-potency drugs and innovation in manufacturing process will sustainably modify the global pharmaceutical landscape. Thus, the global process of pharmaceutical innovation is not only focused on developing new drug entities but also in new manufacturing processes, that can optimize this stage of drug development, making it more efficient and cost-effective, responding to felt needs in the pharmaceutical sector. Improvements in process product development approaches and streamlining of manufacturing operations can have a profound impact on the bottomline. To keep pace with advances of new formulations and the increasing number of highly potent drugs, and so on, engineering expertise is required to design equipment that can manufacture, and package such medicines according to the required specifications while ensuring the safety of the workers. The aim of this study is to describe new manufacturing processes used in the pharmaceutical industry with particular interest in the following techniques: Fluidized Hot Melt Granulation, Hot Melt Extrusion, Spray Drying Technology, Liquid Dispensing Technology and DiffCORE Technology. For each one of these manufacturing techniques, a description of the state of the art is given and the pharmaceutical applications, the equipment, the excipients and the advantages and limitations are described