Pharma and Chemical
Any chemical compounds or pharmaceutical ingredients, such as standard drugs, fine & specialty chemicals, or cosmetics & fragrances, undergo complex and time-consuming R&D processes and strict application testing before being produced at large scale and released to the market.
Process
Let's dive into the most relevant process steps of pharma and chemical research.
- Discovery
- Development
- Testing
- Production
Discovery supporter
Synthesis / Extraction
The search for active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and chemical compounds typically begins with a synthesis or an extraction step. Reflux synthesis and Soxhlet extraction can be performed via rotary evaporation.
Concentration
Since both synthesis and extraction require large amounts of solvent, a concentration step is required prior to downstream processing. Here, rotary evaporation is used to remove the solvent and concentrate the compound of interest.
Parallel Concentration
The use of parallel evaporation can speed up the concentration of multiple samples. Many samples are evaporated simultaneously, which increases sample throughput.
Separation
Flash and preparative high-pressure liquid chromatography (prep HPLC) are commonly used to purify target compounds: flash is used as a pre-purification step, whereas prep HPLC increases the purity of the target compound to the maximum.
Freeze Drying
Following the separation process, molecules of interest are highly diluted and must be concentrated before proceeding with the next steps. Freeze drying can be used to remove solvent from heat-sensitive products with minimal damage.
Melting Point Analysis
Melting point analysis can be used to perform quality control on the compound of interest. Determination of the novel compound’s melting point serves as a useful indicator of the material’s purity.
Development supporter
Synthesis / Extraction
The process of synthesizing or extracting target compounds is scaled up using industrial rotary evaporation. Here, large scale evaporating flasks and Soxhlet extraction chambers are used to handle large sample sizes.
Concentration
The process of concentration or drying is scaled up using industrial rotary evaporation. High heating capacities and fast distillation rates can rapidly concentrate large volumes.
Separation
As the separation process is optimized and upscaled, the sample amounts increase. With this, loading & collection equipment as well as consumables for flash chromatography and prep HPLC need to be adapted accordingly.
Freeze Drying
After separation, the molecule of interest may require concentration prior to formulation. Freeze drying is commonly used to remove the solvent without damaging the product.
Spray Drying
Functional molecules are pre-formulated by spray drying to facilitate their storage or their incorporation into a formulation. Spray drying is one of the most common technologies used to obtain granulated substances.
Encapsulation
Prilling by vibration (dripping) is a technique for generating small amounts of liquid-carrying polymer particles in the laboratory. This process results in core-shell particles or matrix particles.
Production supporter
Melting Point Analysis
Melting point analysis can be used to perform quality control on compounds of interest. The accurate determination of melting or boiling point is a fast way to check a material’s purity level.
Nitrogen and Protein Analysis
Nitrogen and protein content are key quality parameters for a wide variety of pharmaceuticals and chemicals. With the Kjeldahl method, any product’s quality can be controlled accurately throughout the entire manufacturing process.
NIR Analysis
Pharmaceutical and chemical compound manufacturers are required to test all incoming raw materials. The speed of analysis and high levels of accuracy make NIR analysis the ideal candidate for this task.
