The Polymer Processing Institute (PPI), an independent, not-for-profit, research and development organization that is headquartered at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), has expanded its mission of working with industry and government to advance the field of polymer processing to include generating and using fundamental knowledge related to incorporating APIs into polymer excipients through hot-melt extrusion. I recently visited with the PPI researchers and toured their facilities. Read more »

Rollprint Packaging Products’ new, patent-pending, color-changing sealant technology is appropriately named Chameleon; it enhances product security with a color change indicating that a pouch or tray lid has been opened. Read more »

The 2012 European Outsourcing Awards—what some call the “Outsourcing Oscars”—were presented on October 10, 2012 during the CPhI Worldwide/iCSE show and included awards to Vetter for a high-speed filling line and to Catalent for updates to its controlled-release facility. Read more »

Yesterday, I reported the news that the US Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) released new standards for labels on prescription containers dispensed by pharmacists in the US.  It seems that, despite the efforts of regulators, industry, and medical professionals, patients continue to misunderstand dosage instructions. Read more »

Research into hot melt extrusion (HME) as a solution to improve solubility continues to expand with a partnership between Encap Drug Delivery, a contract development and manufacturing organization in the UK, and the School of Pharmacy at the Queen’s University Belfast (QUB), announced in a press release this week. Read more »

It is amazing what the human nose knows.  Well, those who originally detected a musty, moldy odor in pharmaceutical and healthcare products didn’t know where it came from.  But the odorous taints that resulted in product recalls were found to come from tribromoanisole (TBA) and trichloroanisole (TCA), and have been linked to treated wooden pallets from sources outside the US, the Parenteral Drug Association (PDA) reported in a September PharmTech article, which summarizes the findings of the recent PDA Technical Report No. 55 on detecting and mitigating taints and odors from TBA and TCA. Read more »

Researchers are trying to find better, cheaper ways to produce biodegradable and bio-based polymers.  Although one of the main drivers for this research is to compete with fossil-fuel-based polymers in large-volume, consumer plastics applications, medical applications, such as microcapsules for drug delivery, may also benefit.  While it seems odd, the researchers found that waste oil from cooking fried food can be used as a raw material in the polymer production process.  Read more »

The International Society of Automation’s (ISA’s) 7th Marketing and Sales Summit, held Aug. 15–17, 2012 in Austin, Texas, was themed “New Rules of Customer Engagement: Riding the Winds of Change”, and emphasized the need to adapt to the changing needs, expectations, and behaviors of marketplace decision makers, according to an Aug. 27, 2012 press release. Read more »

Tufts University research shows that silk protein can be used to stabilize and maintain the potency of vaccines and other drugs that would otherwise need refrigeration. “Silk stabilization has the potential to significantly change the way we store and deliver pharmaceuticals, especially in the developing world,” said research-paper author and Tufts doctoral student, Jeney Zhang, in a press release. Read more »

The news that the London 2012 Olympic Games aims to be the first Olympics to be “zero waste to landfill” is an indication of the growing importance of finding new ways to fulfill the old mantra of “reduce, reuse, and recycle”.  Recycling is even finding new applications in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries as more companies seek to reduce waste. Read more »