Interest in process analytics is increasing within the pharmaceutical industry, spurred by FDA's endorsement and support of "Process Analytical Technologies," and now the Agency's broader Quality by Design framework.
As a result, the IFPAC conference, devoted to the use of process analytics in various industries, has evolved. Although it still covers developments in electronics, environmental, chemicals, petrochemicals and food processing, the program now places a special emphasis on pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical applications.
What began as a clubby audience of engineers and scientists is broadening, as more managers and senior managers explore PAT's potential return on investment, and consider how process analytics and modern manufacturing methods can combine to impact the bottom line, and reduce manufacturing waste .
We have covered this important conference for the past few years, and included a bit of digital coverage last year, but never tried to "report" on it.
This year, though, NIR and PAT expert Emil CIurcak and senior editor Bill Swichtenberg will be at the conference reviewing the latest technology and interviewing thought leaders from the industry, for an online review of the program that will be posted on our web site later this month.
But we'll also try to provide some short snippets and daily reports in this blog, for those who can't attend the conference this year, or who are curious about QbD, PAT and process analytics and how they might practically be applied, to everyday drug R&D, manufacturing and QA/QC operations.
In the drug industry of the future, industrial pharmacists and quality professionals will need to "get geekier" and to think more like engineers. IFPAC offers a variety of practical case histories and best practices. And not all of them are from control and instrumentation specialists, either. Some of the most interesting come from pharmaceutical industry professionals and managers who have made or are making that adjustment in thinking, themselves.
-AMS
