Featured Articles
THE SECOND QUADRANT - The Birth of Drug Solubilization: 1840 Through 1920
Marshall Crew, PhD, indicates that while it may seem as if today’s technologies for dealing with solubilization challenges have emerged throughout the past 2 decades, their maturation took over a century, and this process itself is an interesting study in innovation diffusion.
MANAGEMENT INSIGHT - Peak Drugs: Have We Passed the Peak of New Drug Discoveries? Are the Best Days Behind Us?
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO PEAK OIL? Since the 1970s, we have been told with varying degrees of certainty that we are about to run out of…
EXTERNAL DELIVERY - The Glamour of Air Travel
I have been traveling by air for all of my business life, and throughout the years, I have been both a victim of and a…
PARTICLE AGGREGATION ANALYSIS - Biologics & Particulates: Identification & Control in the Product Lifecycle
Zabin Younes says that traditional tools, such as SEC and DSC, have been used in formulation screening; however, to ensure a control of particulate counts, it is important to use the full range of tools to ensure all types and sizes of particles and aggregates are assessed and accounted.
NANOSCALE PARTICLES - VAULT: A Novel Nanofrontier in Drug Delivery
ABSTRACT Novel nanoscale particles (Vaults) as first described in 1986, exist in the multiples of thousands in most eukaryotic cells. Having an intricate shape composed…
FORMULATION DEVELOPMENT - A QbD Approach to Develop Extended Release Softgels
INTRODUCTION Soft gelatin capsules (softgels) continue to be the oral solid dosage form preferred by consumers.1 Understandably, as they are easy to swallow and digest,…
EXECUTIVE INTERVIEW - Croda: Understanding & Addressing the Purity Needs of the Pharmaceutical Market
Dr. Andrew Kaziska, Health Care Applications Manager at Croda Inc, discusses his company’s Super Refining technology and the benefits of excipient purity in drug formulations.
GASTRORETENTIVE DELIVERY - Box-Behnken-Designed Gastroretentive Floating Tablets of Famotidine
Mohit Kumar, MPharm, Parijat Pandey, and Harish Dureja, PhD, develop and characterize a single-unit, floating controlled drug delivery system of famotidine hydrochloride using a blend of natural polymer and synthetic polymer along with a gas-generating agent by applying Box-Behnken design.
ADVANCED DELIVERY DEVICES - Self-Administration Device Training: Incorporating New Technologies to Reduce Device Errors
Craig Baker says at its core, the ultimate goal of device training is to improve the patient experience and create value for HCPs and industry stakeholders, and improved training technologies can allow brands to engage patients and provide personalized training content based on individual patient needs and performance.
MARKET BRIEF - Miniaturizing Healthcare - From Microelectronics to Nanobiosensing
Cecilia Van Cauwenberghe, MS, Technical Insights Senior Research Analyst, Frost & Sullivan, reports that the proliferation of lower cost microfluidics-based genomics tools offering improved capabilities and allowing more access to end-users is expected to drive this technology for pharmaceutical and biomedical research throughout the next 5 years.
DYNAMIC LIGHT SCATTERING - Colloidal Gold: The Gold Standard for Drug Delivery?
Stephen Ball explores the importance of particle size in biomedical nanotechnology. Experimental data are presented to illustrate how advanced DLS techniques deliver these measurements for colloidal gold in the nanosized and sub-nanosized ranges.
COMBINATION PRODUCTS - Human Factors & Combination Products
Richard Featherstone explains how manufacturers of combination products are being asked to provide rigorous data on the safety of product when intended users use them. These challenges are not going to diminish, but with a focused approach and some sound HF principles, manufacturers can navigate the challenges successfully.
MANAGEMENT INSIGHT - The Specific Peck Response & How Express Scripts Has Changed the Future Course of Drug Pricing
In the book, The Bird, author Colin Tudge describes how his favorite pub once ran out of peanuts and lamely proffered a medley of Japanese…
EXECUTIVE INTERVIEW - Ascendia Pharmaceuticals: Sophisticated Formulations for Poorly Soluble Drugs
Jingjun (Jim) Huang, PhD, CEO, and Founder of Ascendia, discusses his company’s unique vision and strategy to provide pharmaceutical companies with a contract research partner that can provide technologies in order to efficiently determine which approach is most suitable for a given molecule.
STANDARDIZATION TECHNOLOGY - Innovative Temperature Standardization Technology Supports Cell Therapy Clinical Trials
Rolf O. Ehrhardt, MD, PhD, and Maria Thompson, PhD, discuss a unique proprietary temperature standardization technology that is practical for all stages of cell processing and handling. It is currently supporting a Phase IIb clinical trial investigating the efficacy of an immunotherapy treatment for patients with moderate-to-severe refractory Crohn’s disease.
DISSOLUTION ENHANCEMENT - Dissolution Enhancement Through Factorally Designed Porous Solid Dispersions
Balwan Singh and Harish Dureja, PhD, use mathematical models developed in their present study to predict cumulative percentage of glimepiride from PSDs. These models can then be utilized to formulate PSDs with desired glimepiride release.
REGULATORY GUIDANCE - Staying on Top of FDA Guidance for Industry - Training Webinars Foster Transparency & Collaboration
Frost & Sullivan recently tuned into three webinars that were considered to be particularly relevant to current hot topics and therapy areas, and then reviews the current trends and needs behind each new or revised guidance document and key insights for potential sponsors.
EXTERNAL DELIVERY - Crisis Management
The saying, “when the going gets tough, the tough get going,” always comes to mind when I hear about the challenges facing many companies, particularly…
THERAPEUTIC FOCUS - Targeted Payload Therapies Radiate Potential to Attack Various Cancers
Kaushik J. Dave, PhD, MBA, and Dragan Cicic, MD, MBA, indicate that alpha-particle emitters, such as bismuth-213 or actinium-225, may be more effective and efficient at killing cancerous cells not currently treated with radiation while simultaneously decreasing nonspecific cytotoxic effects.
TOPICAL DELIVERY - The Importance of the Right Formulation in Topical Drug Development
Vijendra Nalamothu, PhD, reports that the importance of the right formulation and delivery method in topical pharmaceuticals is critical. It can mean the success or failure of drug substance, and getting the preparation right from the outset saves money and time.
