Vincent Guido, director of sales at Terracon, a ChargePoint Technology company, explores the challenges of fluid management in pharmaceutical manufacturing and argues that the right equipment is key to optimum efficiency, worker safety and quality.
Key insights:
- Selecting the right components for the fluid being handled can remove the need for costly and time-consuming additions to the process.
- Harsh chemicals present a key obstacle to pharma companies and their CDMO partners as compatibility with the vessels and other key infrastructure they can come into direct contact with is vital.
- Customised vessels can integrate seamlessly with existing equipment to minimise the risk of containment breaches at the connectors. Secondary vessels can be designed to fit beneath primary containers to act as an emergency safeguard against overspill.
Liquid – or fluid – processing and management is an essential feature of many modern pharmaceutical manufacturing lines. Many finished drug formulations are necessarily liquid, in the case of injectable and ophthalmic treatments, or semi-liquid, in the case of topical products. Biopharmaceutical treatments require purified water and other liquid processing due to the media used to culture the active molecules. Harsh liquids, including acids and alkalis, frequent the manufacturing process for many small-molecule active pharmaceutical ingredients, as well as for excipients, either as vital raw materials or as solvents.