Continuous processing production line set up in Finland
pharmafile | February 25, 2013 | News story | Manufacturing and Production |Â Â Finland, PROMISÂ
A specialist centre in Finland providing expertise in the continuous processing of pharmaceuticals, first envisaged in 2008, opened its doors last week.
The PROMIS Centre officially launched on 19 February to provide R&D on the use of continuous processing of solid dosage form pharmaceuticals, and is claimed to be the first of its kind in Europe.
Continuous processing is starting to gain a following in the pharmaceutical sector thanks to the possibility of using the approach to increase cost efficiency.
Earlier this month GlaxoSmithKline said it was starting to introduce the technology in its first UK plants, while Novartis recently announced plans to build a commercial-scale continuous processing facility by 2015.
The PROMIS production line is located in the facilities of the University of Eastern Finland, and it can also be used for training purposes in the fields of pharmacy and engineering, according to its developers.
“Continuous processing in pharmaceutical manufacturing is a way of making the manufacturing process simpler and faster while reducing the need to perform intermediate and final product analyses,” said the group in a statement.
“This is possible with the help of modern systems which measure the quality of the sub-processes even in real time.”
Continuous manufacturing relies on the adoption of techniques such as process analytical technologies (PAT) to monitor the conditions in reaction vessels in real-time. This allows raw materials to be fed into the front end of the system, with a series of synthesis and processing steps carried out to allow the product to be continually ‘harvested’ from the end.
The PROMIS production line includes feeders, mixers, conveyors and a tablet machine, but its developers note that the core of the system is a roller compactor for dry granulation.
It serves as “a good test bed for the pharmaceutical industry to study what kind of products can and should be manufactured using continuous processing”, adding that it also provides insight into the modifications needed in product composition.
The project is a collaboration between the University of Eastern Finland, the VTT Technical Research Centre and the Savonia University of Applied Sciences.
Around 20 corporate partners representing the pharmaceutical industry, measurement device developers, and groups from the control and modelling sectors are also involved the project.
Phil Taylor
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