Lisa De Souter

Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Process Analytical Technology

Ottergemsesteenweg 460
B-9000 Gent (Belgium) 
Tel.: +32-9-264.80.90
E-mail: Lisa.DeSouter@UGent.be
Education: Pharmacist (Master in Drug Development)

Enabling scale-flexible process development for continuous solid-dosage manufacturing

Instead of handling pharmaceutical processes in a batch-wise system which requires step-by-step manufacturing, implementation of continuous manufacturing is gaining momentum in the pharmaceutical industry. As continuous manufacturing has the potential to increase the efficiency, flexibility, agility and robustness of pharmaceutical manufacturing. A continuous flow and fast conversion of raw materials into finished drug products generates advantages as powder can be converted to tablets in minutes.

However, there still are some remaining challenges related to scale flexibility. The intended commercial line throughput is often different from the development line throughput resulting in tablets with unacceptable quality. Scale-up tools need to be developed that capture behavior of powder in every unit operation of a commercial production line.