Earlier this year, the concept of solar-powered aviation was further propelled from its proverbial runway, testing many limits that had not been previously realized in the realm of energy-efficient transportation. However, as is the case with virtually every achievement since the dawn of civilization, the question remains the same: Where do we go from here?

From May–July 2012, Solar Impulse—with the help of several sponsors, including Bayer MaterialScience, the subsidiary of the pharmaceutical manufacturer Bayer—successfully completed a series of flights (known as Crossing Frontiers) as part of a round-trip journey from Switzerland to Morocco, setting several world records, according to the World Air Sports Federation, in the solar-powered subcategory (including for free distance along a course, and for straight distance with predeclared waypoints). In addition, the mission included the first solar-powered intercontinental flight linking Europe to Africa when Solar Impulse’s HB-SIA plane crossed the Strait of Gibraltar.

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Guest blog written by Nancy Berg, President and CEO, ISPE.

At the inaugural joint FDA/ISPE conference on CGMP earlier this year, the FDA’s Dr. Janet Woodcock delivered a strong message to the pharmaceutical industry: the efforts to adopt Quality by Design (QbD) principles within pharmaceutical manufacturing must be a top priority for the industry. She put the onus on industry and regulators to find ways to work together more effectively, to engage in productive conversations, and to dissolve roadblocks to QbD and the issues that lead to counterfeiting, shortages, and other threats to safe, high-quality medicines. Read more »

An upcoming PharmTech Viewpoint article (Check out PharmTech’s October issue) raises that very question.  Earlier this year, the New York Times reported that FDA had tracked employee emails in its investigation into the possible leak of agency information by FDA scientists who complained about the agency’s medical device review process. These scientists raised concerns about radiation danger levels.

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Pharmaceutical Technology and Patheon are partnering to provide you—our readers—with CMC advice from some of the leading formulation scientists and pharmaceutical manufacturing experts in the world. To get started, we need to know what plagues your CMC strategies and daily work. Email your questions directly to Editorial Director Angie Drakulich at adrakulich@advanstar.com. (*Note: We will keep your name and company affiliation anonymous.)

Answers will be provided by the Patheon Certified Consultants team beginning in the January 2013 print and online editions of PharmTech. These experts have collectively brought more than 200 pharmaceutical products to market, including some of the world’s largest blockbusters.

Sample questions:

• I have a BCS Class II compound for which amorphous solubility is easily sustained, but I can’t get the compound to rapidly dissolve. What are some solutions, particularly with respect to excipient selection?
• I have a compound that is non-ionizable and does not form a stable salt. Are co-crystals my best option and what are the key criteria in identifying a suitable co-crystal?
• I am having trouble maintaining product stability when scaling up a lyophilization process. What are the likely factors causing the problem?

Yesterday, Sanofi issued a press statement titled “Sanofi provides information on the adaption of its activities in France through 2015.” Read past the headline and you quickly realise that the ‘adaption of activities’ involves eliminating around 900 jobs at the company’s sites France by 2015. You can read the statement here.

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Biopharmaceutical manufacturing has certainly come a long way in terms of innovation, but now it has many more miles to go, literally—on a truck.

On Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2012, I will be attending GE Healthcare Life Sciences’s ReadyToRock Tour 2012 in Piscataway, New Jersey. This 1000-ft² mobile suite features the company’s ReadyToProcess platform, which contains bioreactors, filters, tubing and connectors, chromatography systems, and columns—all preconditioned, ready to plug in, and use. GE’s team of experts will also be on board for live presentations and demonstrations of the equipment.

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In 2008, adverse affects and deaths linked to Baxter’s blood thinner drug heparin revealed contamination in the heparin supply chain originating from an API manufacturer in China. FDA identified oversulfated chondroitin sulfate (OSCS) in the contaminated heparin. In response to the 2008 heparin situation, the United States Pharmacopeia Convention (USP) has revised the quality standards for heparin. Anita Szajek, PhD, and Tina Morris of USP highlight USP’s revisions to the heparin sodium monograph in the September 2012 issue of PharmTech.

As the saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has taken that advice to heart, according to an announcement from HHS’s Office of the Assistant Secretary of Preparedness and Response. According to the announcement, HHS has awarded three-year contracts to all five US-licensed influenza vaccine manufacturers to produce master vaccine seed stocks for viruses with pandemic potential before a pandemic occurs. HHS will choose the vaccine strains to be stockpiled, and expects that with vaccine seed stock already in hand, the government will be able to respond to a flu pandemic more quickly. Read more »

An upcoming report on India’s pharmaceutical industry in PharmTech (check out the October 2012 issue) discusses India’s strict patent policies and got me thinking about the rights of intellectual property versus patients’ rights to needed medicines. PharmTech’s Asia correspondent, Jane Wan, reports that India has set a high bar for patent approval that Western drug manufacturers are finding frustrating.

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IMS Health released its latest global spending report over the summer, confirming that times for the pharma market are indeed changing. The dreaded “patent cliff” that has likely been haunting the dreams of pharma business leaders for the past few years may still exist, but there is more to look forward to. Estimates from IMS Health seem to demonstrate that the industry has not only been planning ahead to ensure that the plague of patent expiries doesn’t kill business altogether, but has done quite a good job at having a backup plan. Take a look: Read more »