What Is The Process Of Making Medicine?
Pharmaceutical manufacturing is synthesizing medicines on a large scale as part of the pharmaceutical business. The medication production process may be divided into several unit activities such as milling, granulation, coating, tablet pressing and so on.
Scale-up Considerations
Cooling
While dry ice may be used as a cooling agent in a laboratory to improve reaction selectivity, the procedure becomes more complex on an industrial scale. The expense of cooling a conventional reactor to this temperature is high, and the viscosity of the reagents usually rises as the temperature decreases (making mixing more difficult). This increases the expense of stirring harder and replacing components more often, resulting in a non-homogeneous reaction. Finally, lower temperatures may cause crusting of reagents, intermediates, and byproducts to the reaction vessel over time, reducing product purity.
Stoichiometry
Various reagent stoichiometric ratios may result in different product ratios. Adding a significant quantity of reagent A to reagent B on an industrial scale may take some time. During this time, the added reagent A is exposed to a considerably larger stoichiometric quantity of reagent B until it is completely added. This imbalance may cause reagent A to react prematurely and subsequent products to react with the massive excess of reagent B.
Solvent Extractions
On an industrial scale, the decision whether to add organic solvent to aqueous solvent (or vice versa) becomes critical. Emulsions may develop depending on the solvents employed and the time required for the layers to separate can be prolonged if the mixing between solvents is not optimum. Stoichiometry must be reconsidered when adding an organic solvent to aqueous, since excess water may hydrolyze organic molecules even in moderately acidic or basic circumstances. In a broader sense, the location of the chemical plant may influence the temperature of the reaction vessel. Even a few degrees of temperature variation may result in vastly different extraction amounts across plants situated in different countries.
Unit Operations
Powder Feeding In Continuous Manufacturing
In continuous production, input raw materials and energy are supplied into the system constantly, while output products are extracted at a constant rate. The process performance is highly reliant on the consistency of the material flow rate. Because feeding is usually the initial unit operation in powder-based continuous processes, it is essential to feed powders consistently (and correctly) into succeeding unit operations of the process line. Feeders have been developed to provide high-performance dependability, precise feed rate control and low disturbances. The accurate and constant distribution of materials via well-designed feeders guarantees the overall stability of the process. For pharmaceutical production, loss-in-weight (LIW) feeders are used. LIW feeders regulate material dispensing by weight at a precise rate and are often used to reduce flow rate variability caused by changes in infill level and material bulk density. Importantly, powder flow characteristics have a major influence on feeding performance.
Powder Blending
In the pharmaceutical business, a variety of excipients may be combined with the active pharmaceutical ingredient to produce the final blend required to manufacture the solid dosage form. The variety of components that may be mixed (excipients, API) introduces several factors that must be addressed in order to obtain the desired product quality characteristics. Particle size distribution (including aggregates or lumps of material), particle form (spheres, rods, cubes, plates and irregular), presence of moisture (or other volatile substances), particle surface characteristics (roughness, cohesiveness), and powder flow properties are examples of these factors.
Milling
Milling is often needed throughout the drug manufacturing process to decrease the average particle size in a drug powder. Many reasons include increased homogeneity and dose consistency, increased bioavailability, and increased therapeutic ingredient solubility. In certain instances, repeated powder blending followed by milling is used to enhance the mixes’ manufacturability.
Granulation
Granulation is classified into two types: wet granulation and dry granulation. Granulation is the reverse of milling; it is the process by which tiny particles are linked together to create bigger particles known as granules. Granulation is utilized for a variety of purposes. Granulation avoids “demixing” components in a combination by producing a granule that retains all of the components in their necessary proportions; improves flow characteristics of powders (since tiny particles do not flow well); and enhances compaction qualities for tablet production.
Hot-melt Extrusion
In pharmaceutical solid oral dosage manufacturing, hot-melt extrusion is used to deliver low solubility and bioavailability medicines. It has been shown that hot-melt extrusion may molecularly distribute poorly soluble medicines in a polymer carrier, improving dissolution rates and bioavailability. The process includes using heat, pressure, and agitation to combine materials and ‘extrude’ them through a die. Twin-screw high-shear extruders mix ingredients while also breaking up particles; the particles formed may then be mixed and compacted into pills or capsules.
Documentation
Documenting activities by pharmaceutical manufacturers is a license-to-operate endeavor that supports both the quality of the product produced and the satisfaction of regulators who oversee manufacturing operations and determine whether a manufacturing process may continue or must be terminated and remediated.
Site Master File (SMF)
In the pharmaceutical industry, a Site Master File (SMF) is a document that contains information regarding the production and management of industrial processes. A manufacturer produces the document. The SMF includes detailed and factual GMP information on the production and management of pharmaceutical manufacturing activities at the specified site, as well as any closely linked operations at adjacent and neighboring buildings. If just a portion of a pharmaceutical process is performed on the site, the site master file must only specify those activities (such as analysis and packing).
For more information on the medicine production process, visit rondaxe.com online.
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