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This Month's Focus:
Manufacturing
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Manufacturing Technology: Transdermal Therapeutic System (TTS)
(Free)
The establishment of economical methods for mass manufacturing provides a major hurdle for transdermal drugs. This hurdle includes both the time-criticality of setting up new, tailor-made production facilities and engines and the significant investment connected to that effort. Different from manufacturing drugs that use other methods of delivery, such as tablets, the process requires the manufacturer to take into account a key necessity; establishing or constructing the process lines must occur from the first minute of development of a new transdermal formulation.
Trends in Peptide Manufacturing: A Move toward Lower Costs
(Free)
Since 1970, the US FDA has approved 45 peptide drugs, nearly all injected, infused, or implanted in slow-release, depot formulations. Few companies have created peptide drugs delivered by other methods. Although actively investigated, strategies for transdermal, oral, inhalation, spray, and intranasal delivery of peptides generally have not been commercially successful.
Hyperspectral Monitoring of Continuous Pharmaceutical Manufacturing
(Free)
Manufacture of transdermal products, such as patches that deliver drugs transdermally, typically occur on roll-to-roll equipment. Near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy is a widely used tool now for identifying materials and for monitoring product composition, coating thickness, blend uniformity, and other pharmaceutically relevant parameters. This technology is fast and nondestructive and can provide quantitative analyses of pharmaceuticals, both in development and on the production line. Hardware advances in spectrographs, computing power, and photodetectors now allow companies to combine spectroscopy with imaging technology, creating so-called Hyperspectral Imaging Systems (HSI).
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