An engineering view of pharmaceutical powder mixing.
Can the pharmaceutical industry learn anything from other powder processing industries? Although essential regulatory processes have ensured that the pharmaceutical industry is a leader in quality assurance, they have also led to a conservative approach to process technology. Conservatism is advantageous when the dosage form and profit margins are stable; however, for most other industries, form, price and quality of product are all subject to fickle customer requirements. Other powder industries have used a sequential questioning approach to elicit new technical responses to change. Perhaps the time is ripe for this to be introduced to the pharmaceutical industry?
Harnby
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Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Bradford, West Yorkshire, BD7 1DP, Bradford, UK