GEA Pharma & Healthcare Insight stories
Technical stories
Bi-layer Tablets: The GEA Way
For a variety of reasons, including patent extensions, new therapeutic developments and marketing, to name a few, pharmaceutical companies are increasingly developing bi-layer tablets.
New research highlights exceptional containment performance of the GEA coater
The containment performance of the GEA Coater, described as a “new generation” device capable of both continuous and batch film coating, was assessed during three phases of operation and discussed in a peer-reviewed journal
Compression Issues: Causes and Remedies
Usually, when evaluating a new tablet press, one of the first questions asked concerns the number of compression stations. The number of tablets that can be produced with a press is a crucial parameter for every manufacturer of solid dosage forms. And, for single rotary tablet presses, this is a number that can easily be calculated by multiplying the number of stations by the rotation speed and the running time in minutes. For example, a press with 25 stations running with 120 revolutions per minute produces 180,000 tablets per hour.
ConsiGma® CDC 50 Completes 120-Hour Trial Run
We at GEA, in collaboration with MSD, a tradename of Merck & Co., Inc. (Kenilworth, NJ, USA), recently conducted a successful robustness trial on GEA’s ConsiGma® CDC 50 Continuous Direct Compression system for a period of 120 hours. The positive outcome highlights the suitability of the technology — known as continuous manufacturing — for the efficient completion of campaigns that formerly involved longer and more complex batch processes.
Tailor-Made Containment in the Pharma Industry
The need for the contained handling and processing of pharmaceuticals began to rise significantly about 15 years ago, based on an increased focus on health and safety and the development of highly potent active pharmaceutical ingredients (HPAPIs).
A Comparison of Granulation Technologies
There are a number of granulation technologies available to pharmaceutical manufacturers. Given the importance of granulation in the production of oral dosage forms, this article offers advice on various processes.
Aqueous Enteric Coating System Case Study
Wishing to investigate a new process using a fully formulated enteric coating system, a study was done to evaluate the suitability of a novel semi-continuous coating process for the rapid application of an aqueous enteric coating system as a model functional coating.
GEA technology offers increased tablet coating and drying efficiencies
Designed to gently and accurately deposit controlled amounts of coating materials onto tablet cores — even if they are hygroscopic or friable — the high-performance GEA coater technology is able to process both small and large quantities of tablets at very high suspension application rates.
A better way for pharmaceutical manufacturers to protect people, products and plant
As an early indicator of dangerous conditions, coal miners once relied on caged birds to detect toxins in the air. GEA has brought that concept into the 21st century and created the Digital Canary to ensure the health and safety of operators making oral solid dosage forms with highly potent ingredients
Fundamentals of Pharmaceutical Freeze Drying
Freeze drying, also known as lyophilization, is mainly used to remove the water from sensitive — mostly biological — products without damaging them. As such, they can be preserved in a permanently storable state and be subsequently reconstituted by replacing the water.
Granulation and Agglomeration: The GEA Solution
GEA has been supplying advanced solid dosage processing plants for mixing, blending, granulation, drying, pelletizing and coating to the pharmaceutical industry for more than 50 years. Harald Stahl, the company's Senior Pharmaceutical Technologist, briefly reviews their unrivalled portfolio of market-leading technology and equipment.
Applications and Benefits of Granulation
Significant technical advances have been achieved in recent years, enhancing the performance of granulation technology and allowing optimal solutions to be identified for every product mix and production combination. GEA has been a constant leader in the field, driving these developments and endeavoring to provide the right solution for your granulation application.
Direct Compression of Hormonal Tablets
Wishing to maximise the solid dosage production of a highly potent hormonal product, a leading drug manufacturer tasked GEA with significantly increasing output, providing a safer and more efficient factory environment, and introducing new systems that would replace the existing isolator-based process.
Particle Characterization of Pellet Processes
Innopharma Labs provide cost efficient and reliable PAT analyzers that support robust manufacturing processes. Innopharma Labs products help customers further understand their manufacturing processes which in turn, help to reduce scale-up time, reduce product losses and improve yields. Their eyecon™ 3D particle characterizer provides surface morphology, shape and size information in-line and in real-time for granulation, milling and spheronizing processes.
Solving Segregation Challenges in MUPS Production
An innovative MUPS tablet production line has been developed that eliminates segregation and significantly increases process yield.
Pharmaceutical granulation: An established technology in a changing world
Optimizing the granulation process — the most important unit operation during the production of pharmaceutical oral solid dosage forms — is not only a critical aspect of operational excellence, it also plays a major role in preventing downstream compression problems.
Preventing Tablet Capping
The importance of pre-compression pressure and dwell time to mitigate tablet capping problems.
Accelerating pharmaceutical single-pot processing with microwave drying
The use of microwaves during high-shear wet granulation and drying in a single-pot processor is shown to be more effective and efficient than gas-stripping.
Spray Drying Inhalables
Using GEA’s knowledge of spray drying and formulation makes it possible to accurately manipulate aerodynamic particle size and flow properties. As such, it is easier than ever before to efficiently produce therapies in the form of free-flowing particles of a small aerodynamic size, suitable for inhalation. As a delivery method, inhalation is particularly relevant for commercializing biological compounds such as hormones, peptides and proteins that risk degradation if ingested.
How to Make Tablets from Potent APIs, Part I
APIs are becoming more and more potent. Health and safety authorities all around the world are putting a greater focus on the protection of operators dealing with these substances. Thus, containment is an important issue in solid dosage form production. Discover our approach in this 2-part article.
How to Make Tablets from Potent APIs, Part II
The overall materials handling concept for potent APIs is the controlling factor in determining the containment performance of the entire installation. There are two basic choices: stainless steel or disposable systems.
Therapeutic Proteins Process Experts
Proteins with therapeutic applications are synthesised in the laboratory for pharmaceutical use. Many recombinant DNA-based processes use genetically modified micro-organisms as host cells (bacteria, yeast or mammalian cells) to produce biological products, under defined conditions, that they would not normally create in their natural form. Insulin was the first therapeutic protein to be introduced to treat diabetes in the 1920s.
