PowderHandling - Solid Dosage Seminar

The PharmaProcessing Solid Dosage Seminar and Table Top Display on the 27th November was a one day event featuring six very interesting and informative presentations by both local and international experts in their individual fields.

Seminar Agenda & Presenters

Validation Testing of Hardware and Software

John Nesbitt, Director - Wayahead Systems Pty Ltd

SOPs on configuration of hardware such as electronic balances
Software - Packages, in house, tools, software upgrades
Hardware - PC, balances, printers, barcode scanners, devices
Interfaces - Between applications such as ERP, PLC, legacy systems
Other Issues - Network security, backup, disaster recovery, system upgrades
Data audit trail

Spray and Fluidised Bed Drying Techniques For Functional Product Characteristics in Pharmaceutical Processing

Bruce Graham - GEA Process Engineering Pty Ltd

Description of spray drying systems for solid dose products:
* Drying gas preparation
* Atomisation techniques
* Evaporation modeling
* Product / gas separation
* Examples of up-stream process methods for spray dried products
* Examples of down-stream process methods for spray dried products

Description of fluidised bed drying systems for solid dose products:
* High shear wet granulation & other preparation procedures
* Drying gas preparation
* Product feeding
* Evaporation modeling
* Product discharge
* Down-stream product processing

Why Coat Fine Particles - Challenges, Concepts and Strategies

Dr David Morton, Senior Lecturer Pharmaceutics - Monash University

Changing inter-particulate forces from a chemical and physical perspective
Practical mechanical methods for dry coatings
Examples - understanding some issues in pharmaceutical powder surfaces
Assembling formulations- by intelligent design?
Opportunities in powder flow or dispersion improvement
Further opportunities for dissolution, colloidal behavior and more...

Benefits of Near Infra Red for Moisture Analysis in Fluid Bed Driers and Tablet Coating Thickness

Andrew Game - JW Industrial Instruments Pty Ltd

NIR technology
New advancements in NIR
NIR moisture measurement in fluid bed driers
Applying technology to the application
NIR measurement for tablet coating thickness

Assessing the Risk of Segregation in Powder Handling

Dave Drew, Pharmaceutical Director - Matcon Group Ltd, UK

Definition of segregation
Types of segregation
Effects of segregation
Blending risk
Product transfer risk
Powder flow
Process design steps to resolve segregation

A Practical Approach to the Retrospective Validation of Solid Dose Products

Brad Roberts - SeerPharma Pty Ltd

Product evaluation / risk assessment - Do we understand how well our products perform relative to specifications? How do we assess?
Understanding validation requirements - How much validation do we need to do? What do we validate? How do we do it for existing products?
Post Validation Review - What happens after we have a validated product? Is validation enough?
Presentation of case studies

Overall, the feedback we received was very positive. Some of the comments we received on the feedback forms included:-

# All presentations were extremely informative.

# Very informative & very well presented.

# Dave Drew's presentation was excellent. Educational, and well presented.

# David Morton's presentaion was excellent, delivered with passion on a dry subject and made very interesting.