Thermo Scientific HAAKE Pharma MiniLab
Hot melt extrusion and continuous process leads to cost efficient production. In development of new drug/ excipients small scale extrusion systems reduce time to market and use comparable processes to production. Applications and products for development with the HAAKE Pharma MiniLab are described.
The pharmaceutical industry involves numerous batch processes. Recently a trend to continuous processes is visible as continuous processing has a couple of advantages. Especially the hot melt extrusion can produce more efficiently and with higher output. Furthermore allows the extrusion process the monitoring of processing parameter.
As compounding takes place directly in the molten stage, aqueous solutions are avoided. Reduced or removed drying steps help to save energy.
Extrusion is a predominant technique in polymer processing. Profiles, sheets and bags are produced as end products, compounds as intermediate products. Even in the huge installation of a petrochemical plant we see extruders producing LDPE, PP resins with an output of 40 t per hour. In pharmaceutical technology the extrusion is known for more than 35 years. Developed in industries for products far less expensive on a kilogram basis the extrusion gives a key to survival under growing cost constraints.
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