Featured Articles
PARTICULATE IDENTIFICATION - Particle Identification for Improvement of Pharmaceutical Production
Kathryn A. Lee, PhD; Markus Lankers, PhD; and Oliver Valet, PhD, discuss various aspects with regard to microscopic particle counting, sizing, and identification using Raman, laser-induced breakdown, and IR spectroscopies, and how these techniques can help accurately identify particles.
THERAPEUTIC FOCUS - Ischemic Stroke: Treatment Beyond the First 3 Hours
Rick Pauls, MBA, says treatment of ischemic strokes hinges on getting tPA into the patient within just few hours of the stroke occurring, but getting to the hospital quickly requires a great deal of luck, and anything that buys the patient more time is worth pursuing.
EXECUTIVE INTERVIEW - ALCAMI: Delivering Solutions by Connecting at Every Level
Dr. Stephan Kutzer, CEO, President, and Chairman of Alcami, discusses his company’s business strategy, outsourcing trends, how the company meets the growing needs of customers, and why companies choose Alcami.
EXTERNAL DELIVERY - International Business, Something to Consider
Not every product, technology, or service is intended for international trade. But then again, not every business is intended to stay at home either. So…
INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVES - What Surprised You the Most This Past Year?: Your Colleague’s Perspectives
The Global Formulation Report in this issue provided some interesting data on what has been happening in a number of key sectors over the past year. We thought it would be intriguing to hear what some of your colleagues said surprised them most.
COMBINATION CORNER - Keys to a Robust Combination Product Design Verification & Validation
Lilli Zakarija, MSME, MBA, explains that in order to conduct a successful V&V on the intended combination product, the key is to understand that the V&V testing is not an isolated activity and task.
DELIVERY PLATFORM - Encochleated Drug Formulations: Enhancing Efficacy, Minimizing Toxicity
Roelof Rongen, MBA, MS, indicates drugs for serious fungal and microbial infections currently require IV administration at doses associated with significant toxicity. Orally administered, encochleated formulations of a broad-spectrum of fungicidal and anti-microbial medications may provide delivery of anti-infective drugs at therapeutic levels while minimizing drug-associated side effects.
SPECIAL FEATURE - Excipients: Manufacturers Look to Co-Processing as a Way of Improving Functionality
Contributor Cindy H. Dubin reports how leading excipient manufacturers are overcoming their own R&D challenges to deliver innovative excipients that address problems associated with both large and small molecules.
LIPOPHILIC SALTS - Opportunities & Applications in Oral Drug Delivery
Hywel Williams, PhD, Annabel Igonin, PhD, David Vodak, PhD, and Hassan Benameur, PhD, believe lipophilic salts are being explored in a number of different areas and one interesting application is their potential to boost API loading in lipid formulations.
CARBON NANOTUBES - MGMR™ - A Medical-Grade Carbon Nanotube Designed for Medical Applications
Joseph S. Dillon, PhD, MBA, and Lainie Mulvanny discuss the transformation of CNTs into a unique composition of matter, marking a complete departure from the dirty, tangled micron bundles of CNTs that frustrated medical researchers for years.
PROTEIN CRYSTALS - Reshaping Traditional Biotherapeutic Formulations
Don Paul Kovarcik, MBA, and William Wittbold, MS, indicate that while protein therapeutics have enjoyed considerable commercial success throughout the past 3 decades, there still remain formulation and delivery challenges.
THERAPEUTIC FOCUS - Direct Effects™ Cannabinoid Therapy: Medical Cannabis Without Psychoactive & Systemic Effects
Ronald Aung-Din, MD, reports topical CBD is beneficial in treating symptoms of a number of neuropathic and psychiatric conditions. Individual clinical response varied depending on condition treated and on severity and longevity of symptoms, and overall, topical CBD therapy was well tolerated.
RIGHTS MANAGEMENT PROTECTION - You Have the Right to Remain Protected
Tom Johnson says on the surface, rights management protection may look like another expense and another system to maintain, and while that may be true, it is a critical security component that delivers rapid and significant return on investment.
MICROBIAL PRODUCTION - Cutting-Edge inABLE® Technology: The Key to Cost-Effective Production of a Novel Antimicrobial Peptide With Potential for the Treatment of MRSA
Ian Fotheringham, PhD, and Mathew Upton, PhD, report that Infections caused by antibiotic resistant bacteria are an ever-increasing threat to public health, creating an urgent, growing demand for the identification and development of new therapies.
DRUG DEVELOPMENT EXECUTIVE - Crown Bioscience: Enhancing the Drug Development Process
Jean Pierre Wery, President of Crown Bioscience, discusses the requirement for more accurate research models in oncology research, focusing on PDX models that have the ability to more adequately represent the conditions and mechanisms of immunotherapy in human patients.
EXTERNAL DELIVERY – The Big Hack Attack
John A. Bermingham says it is not a matter of IF your business is going to be hacked but WHEN your business is going to be hacked, but the vast majority of businesses in the US do not have any plans in place for such an event.
MANAGEMENT INSIGHT - The Wisdom of Bees: What the Honeybee Can Teach You & Your Company About Making Better Decisions
Derek Hennecke says once we understand what happens in our brains as we weigh our options, we can extrapolate this knowledge and look with fresh eyes at how CDMOs, large pharma, and the industry make decisions.
COMBINATION CORNER - How to Approach OTS Devices for Your Combination Product
Lilli Zakarija, MSME, MBA, cautions that while OTS devices are already “developed” and on the market, they should still go through the device development design control process from the perspective of the combination product, and then let the design control process determine if the device meets the specific requirements of the CP.
SPECIAL FEATURE - Prefilled Syringes & Parenteral Contract Manufacturing: Biologics Present a New Set of Challenges
Contributor Cindy H. Dubin speaks with leading syringe developers and contract manufacturers to discuss how they are overcoming industry challenges and provides a look at some of the innovative advancements in prefilled syringe technology.
PULMONARY DELIVERY - Pulmonary Delivery of Insulin to Treat Diabetes - A Debacle
T.R. Shantha, MD, PhD, FACA, says the market for new anti-diabetic therapeutic agents and their painless delivery is enormous and is sure drug companies and research scientists are in a race to develop a safer method other than the pulmonary and oral routes to deliver insulin.
