The rising trend of continuous flow is bringing economic and safety benefits to manufacturers, says Dr Shawn Conway, engineering R&D director for Cambrex.
Pharma flow
The economic and safety benefits of implementing continuous flow retrospectively on a commercial scale for a single process step are widely known and have been well documented, with the replacement of traditional batch-based manufacturing by continuous flow chemistry continuing apace. Many major pharmaceutical corporations, including Lilly, GSK and Novartis, are actively investigating and investing significant sums in the use of continuous flow.
There is also an emerging use of continuous flow processes in early clinical development, where the need is to manufacture enough of a drug compound so that the development process can begin.