Table Of ContentAAPS Advances in the Pharmaceutical Sciences Series 42
Zoltan K. Nagy
Arwa El Hagrasy
Jim Litster Editors
Continuous
Pharmaceutical
Processing
AAPS Advances in the Pharmaceutical
Sciences Series
Volume 42
Series Editor
Yvonne Perrie
Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy, University of Strathclyde,
Bearsden, Dunbartonshire, UK
The AAPS Advances in the Pharmaceutical Sciences Series, published in partnership
with the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists, is designed to deliver
volumes authored by opinion leaders and authorities from around the globe,
addressing innovations in drug research and development, and best practice for
scientists and industry professionals in the pharma and biotech industries.
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/8825
Zoltan K. Nagy • Arwa El Hagrasy • Jim Litster
Editors
Continuous Pharmaceutical
Processing
Editors
Zoltan K. Nagy Arwa El Hagrasy
Davidson School of Chemical Engineering Faculty of Pharmacy
Purdue University Cairo University
West Lafayette, IN, USA Cairo, Egypt
Department of Chemical Engineering
OPQ/CDER/FDA
Loughborough University
Office of Pharmaceutical Manufacturing
Loughborough, UK
Assessment
Silver Spring, MD, USA
Jim Litster
Department of Chemical and Biochemical
Engineering
The University of Sheffield
Sheffield, UK
The opinions and conclusions expressed in this book are solely the views of the authors and
do not necessarily reflect those of the Food and Drug Administration or the U.S. Government.
ISSN 2210-7371 ISSN 2210-738X (electronic)
AAPS Advances in the Pharmaceutical Sciences Series
ISBN 978-3-030-41523-5 ISBN 978-3-030-41524-2 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41524-2
© American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists 2020
Jointly published with American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists.
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Preface
The pharmaceutical industry for decades has been dominated by the batch manufac-
turing of pharmaceutical products. The high profitability characterizing the industry
with a focus on blockbuster drugs hampered innovation or taking risk in developing
new manufacturing technologies. More recently, however, it is increasingly recog-
nized that material and manufacturing costs during drug development are signifi-
cant, and the increasingly competitive environment with lower probabilities of
discovering new blockbusters, and the continuously increasing market share of the
generics industry, has incentivized all pharmaceutical industries, innovator compa-
nies, and generics alike, to innovate their manufacturing processes. It is now widely
accepted that continuous manufacturing is a key enabling technology to implement
process intensification in pharmaceutical manufacturing. Continuous manufactur-
ing provides higher yields, lower utility consumption, reduced waste, and smaller
footprint, enabling the pharmaceutical industry to move away from stepwise and
time-consuming batch processing to fully integrated, environmentally friendlier,
and closely controlled manufacturing systems with increased flexibility. Continuous
manufacturing allows faster product development and can produce higher quality
products, with excellent product consistency at lower cost, and enhance drug safety,
providing significant advantages to governments, companies, and patients alike.
Because of its inherent advantages, continuous pharmaceutical manufacturing is
currently receiving much interest from industry and regulatory authorities, with the
joint aim of allowing rapid access of novel therapeutics and existing medications to
the public, without compromising high quality.
Research groups from different academic institutions have significantly contrib-
uted to this field with an immense amount of published research addressing a vari-
ety of topics related to continuous processing. This book is structured to have
individual chapters on the different continuous unit operations involved in drug sub-
stance and drug product manufacturing. A wide spectrum of topics are covered,
including basic principles of continuous manufacturing, applications of continuous
flow chemistry in drug synthesis, understanding residence time distribution, and
v
vi Preface
impact of surge vessels in continuous manufacturing, continuous crystallization,
feeders and blenders, roll compaction, continuous wet granulation, and continuous
drying. The underlying theme for each of these chapters is to present to the reader
the recent advances in modeling, experimental investigations, and equipment design
as they pertain to each individual unit operation. A separate chapter is also dedicated
to practical considerations for continuous drug substance manufacturing, and the
book also includes chapters on quality by design (QbD) and process analytical tech-
nology (PAT) for continuous processing, process control strategies including new
concepts of quality-by-control (QbC), real-time optimization and process manage-
ment, business and supply chain considerations related to continuous manufactur-
ing, as well as safety guidelines related to continuous chemistry. A separate chapter
is dedicated to discussing regulatory aspects of continuous manufacturing, with
description of current regulatory environment quality/GMP aspects, as well as regu-
latory gaps and challenges.
Our aim in publishing this book is to make it a valuable reference for readers
interested in continuous pharmaceutical manufacturing, with a desire to gain both
fundamental knowledge of engineering principles and mechanistic studies utilized
in understanding and developing continuous processes, but also to receiving practi-
cal guidelines that can be invaluable in the successful implementation and operation
of robust continuous manufacturing systems aligned with regulatory requirements.
In addition, our advanced readers and practitioners in this field will find that the
technical content of Continuous Pharmaceutical Processing is at the forefront of
recent technological advances, with coverage of future prospects and challenges for
this technology.
West Lafayette, IN, USA Zoltan K. Nagy
Silver Spring, MD, USA Arwa El Hagrasy
Sheffield, UK Jim Litster
Contents
1 Basic Principles of Continuous Manufacturing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Sudarshan Ganesh and Gintaras V. Reklaitis
2 Continuous Reactors for Pharmaceutical Manufacturing . . . . . . . . . 23
Martin D. Johnson, Scott A. May, Michael E. Kopach,
Jennifer Mc Clary Groh, Timothy Donald White, Kevin P. Cole,
Timothy Braden, Luke P. Webster, and Vaidyaraman Shankarraman
3 Understanding Residence Time, Residence Time Distribution,
and Impact of Surge Vessels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Martin D. Johnson, Scott A. May, Jennifer Mc Clary Groh,
Luke P. Webster, Vaidyaraman Shankarraman, Richard D. Spencer,
Carla Vanesa Luciani, Christopher S. Polster, and Timothy Braden
4 Intermittent Flow and Practical Considerations
for Continuous Drug Substance Manufacturing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Martin D. Johnson, Scott A. May, Jennifer McClary Groh,
Timothy Braden, and Richard D. Spencer
5 Continuous Crystallization: Equipment and Operation . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Yiqing C. Liu and Zoltan K. Nagy
6 Continuous Feeding-Blending in Pharmaceutical Continuous
Manufacturing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Qinglin Su, Gintaras V. Reklaitis, and Zoltan K. Nagy
7 Recent Progress in Roll Compaction Process Development
for Pharmaceutical Solid Dosage Form Manufacture . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Ariel R. Muliadi, Alamelu Banda, and Chen Mao
8 Continuous Wet Granulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Arwa El Hagrasy, Li Ge Wang, and Jim Litster
vii
viii Contents
9 Continuous Fluidized Bed Drying: Advanced Modeling
and Experimental Investigations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
Ibrahim Alaathar, Stefan Heinrich, and Ernst-Ulrich Hartge
10 Statistical Methods in Quality by Design and Process
Analytical Technologies for Continuous Processes
to Enable Real- Time Release . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
Vanessa Cárdenas, Juan G. Rosas, Carlos Pinzón,
and Rodolfo J. Romañach
11 Active Process Control in Pharmaceutical Continuous
Manufacturing – The Quality by Control (QbC) Paradigm . . . . . . . . 395
Qinglin Su, Sudarshan Ganesh, Gintaras V. Reklaitis,
and Zoltan K. Nagy
12 Real-Time Optimization: How to Change Setpoints
in Pharmaceutical Manufacturing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429
Arun Giridhar and Gintaras V. Reklaitis
13 Safety Guidelines for Continuous Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441
Martin D. Johnson and Jeffry Niemeier
14 Evaluating the Business Case for Continuous Manufacturing
of Pharmaceuticals: A Supply Network Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477
Jagjit Singh Srai, Ettore Settanni, and Parminder Kaur Aulakh
15 Regulatory Considerations for Continuous Manufacturing . . . . . . . . 513
Elaine Morefield
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537
Chapter 1
Basic Principles of Continuous
Manufacturing
Sudarshan Ganesh and Gintaras V. Reklaitis
Abstract Continuous manufacturing in the pharmaceutical industry is an emerging
technology, although it is widely practiced in industries such as petrochemical, bulk
chemical, foods, and mineral processing. This chapter briefly discusses the charac-
teristics of continuous manufacturing at the conceptual level, first, in its generic
form, viewing the process as a unitary system, and then as a system composed of
multiple manufacturing unit operations. Key requirements for implementing an
effective continuous process are reviewed, while aspects specific to pharmaceutical
applications are highlighted. The advantages and limitations of continuous manu-
facturing are discussed and compared to the advantages and limitations of the batch
operating mode, which has been the mainstay of the pharmaceutical industry.
Perspectives on advancing pharmaceutical manufacturing in the Industry 4.0 era are
discussed.
Keywords Pharmaceutical manufacturing . Continuous processing . Batch
processing . Fundamentals
1.1 Introduction
Continuous manufacturing has been receiving increasing attention in the pharma-
ceutical industry driven by the expectation of achieving reduced operating and capi-
tal costs, improved product quality, and increased reliability (Lee et al. 2015). While
this mode of manufacture is new to the pharmaceutical industry, it is widely prac-
ticed in many industry sectors, such as refining and petrochemical, bulk chemical,
and food and minerals processing. It most commonly involves the processing of
S. Ganesh · G. V. Reklaitis (*)
Davidson School of Chemical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA
e-mail: [email protected]
© American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists 2020 1
Z. K. Nagy et al. (eds.), Continuous Pharmaceutical Processing,
AAPS Advances in the Pharmaceutical Sciences Series 42,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41524-2_1
