Scalable technology for the extraction of pharmaceutics: outcomes from a 3 year collaborative industry/academia research programme.

This paper reports on some of the key outcomes of a 3 year £1.5m Technology Strategy Board (TSB) funded research programme to develop a small footprint, versatile, counter-current chromatography purification technology and methodology which can be operated at a range of scales in both batch and continuous modes and that can be inserted into existing process plant and systems. Our consortium, integrates technology providers (Dynamic Extractions) and the scientific development team (Brunel) with end user needs (GSK & Pfizer), addressing major production challenges aimed at providing flexible, low capital platform technology driving substantial cost efficiency in both drug development and drug manufacturing processes. The aims of the Technology Strategy Board's high value manufacturing programme are described and how the academic/industry community were challenged to instigate step changes in the manufacturing of high value pharmaceuticals. This paper focusses on one of the themes of the TSB research programme, "Generate a Comprehensive Applications Portfolio". It outlines 15 applications from this portfolio that can be published in the public domain and gives four detailed case studies illustrating the range of application of the technology on the separation of (1) isomers, (2) polar compounds, (3) crude mixtures and (4) on the removal of impurities. Two of these case studies that were scaled up demonstrate between 10 and 20% lower solvent usage and were projected to have significant cost savings compared to conventional solid phase silica gel chromatography at procss scale demonstrating that the latest high performance countercurrent chromatography technology is a competitive platform technolgy for the pharmaceutical industry.

Scalable Technology for the Extraction of Pharmaceutics (STEP): the transition from academic knowhow to industrial reality.

This paper addresses the technological readiness of counter-current chromatography (CCC) instruments to become platform technology for the pharmaceutical industry. It charts the development of the prototype technology since its inception in 1966, through conceptual improvements in the 1980s that led to higher speed separations in hours as opposed to days. It then describes the engineering improvements that have led to the development of high performance counter-current chromatography with the potential for scale-up to process scale for manufacturing products in industry with separation times in minutes rather than hours. A new UK Technology Strategy Board high value manufacturing £1.5 m research programme to take CCC through to technology readiness level 8 (i.e. as platform technology for continuous 24 × 7 operation by industry) is introduced. Four case studies are given as examples of successes from its expanding applications portfolio, which is mainly confidential. Finally, the hurdles for the uptake of new technology by industry are highlighted and the following potential solutions given: rapid method development, automation, continuous processing and instrument reliability and robustness. The future challenge for the CCC community will be to address these development needs urgently if CCC is to become the platform technology it deserves to be.