Jeroen Van Renterghem

Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Process Analytical Technology

Ottergemsesteenweg 460
B-9000 Gent (Belgium)
Tel.: +32-9-264.80.39
E-mail: Jeroen.VanRenterghem@UGent.be

Biography

Pharm. Jeroen Van Renterghem graduated as pharmacist in 2013 from Ghent University where he obtained his master in Drug Development in 2013. For his Master’s thesis, he evaluated the tablet properties using transmission -and backscattering Raman spectroscopy and transmission NIR spectroscopy. In 2014, he started his PhD research on pharmaceutical hot-melt extrusion.

Summary of Research Project(s)

A Quality by Design (QbD) based approach is pushing the pharmaceutical industry from poorly understood “black box” processes towards a well understood continuous production processes. The research focuses on improving the understanding of the pharmaceutical hot-melt processes (i.e., extrusion and injection moulding). Hot-melt extrusion is mainly used in the production of controlled release products and solid-dispersions to improve the bioavailability of poorly water-soluble drugs. Improving the understanding of melt processing starts with a thorough characterization of the raw materials (polymer/drug) via rheology and conventional thermodynamic techniques to predict the material behaviour during melt processing (i.e., extrusion and injection moulding). Further material and process investigation is done via the implementation of in-line spectroscopic techniques in small scale (5mm) extrusion equipment, providing real time information about material behaviour during processing. The final step in this research is a full scale-up study from a laboratory scale (11mm) to a pilot (16mm) scale extruder.