One of the more intriguing presentations from last week's IFPAC show in Arlington, Va. was that by Mathieu Streefland, PAT project leader for the Netherlands Vaccine Institute. Streefland and colleagues are complementing traditional vaccine-monitoring techniques--which tend to be very low-tech and low-cost, and can be up to 50 years old, Streefland noted--with the latest genomic and proteomic methods. NVI is also using NIR to fingerprint the batch-cultivation process for the institute's whooping cough vaccine.
The team is in the midst of establishing allowable process variation, and is working with Siemens Pharma Group and Applikon Biotechnology on more advanced means of process control.
A one-on-one interview with Streefland is available at PharmaManufacturing.com.
--PWT
