In 2006 a new term was coined that is now all too familiar in the industry: downstream bottleneck. With observations of a slow cycle of downstream process improvements indicating potential solutions in the next five years, downstream processing is a very hot topic at conferences and in publications. Thus, the Recovery and Purification track will be highly focused on this pertinent and timely issue. Beyond discussing the bottleneck itself head-on in the opening sessions, the track will focus on alternatives…
Downstream Processing
Austria Welcomes BioProcessors
When it comes to agriculture, the people of Austria are among the most dead-set against so-called “genetically modified organisms” of any population in Europe (1). But as is so often the case elsewhere, their attitude toward biotechnology used in medicine is much more friendly. This may have to do with the country’s traditional strength in environmental biotech (ranging from wastewater treatment and organic waste composting to anaerobic digestion for biogas generation) and also food biotechnology. That is the suggestion of…
Integrity Testing Low-Area Filters Using Air–Water Diffusion and an Automatic Integrity Tester
Both FDA and EMEA guidelines require integrity testing of filters used in processing sterile solutions such as large- and small-volume parenterals (LVPs and SVPs). The same regulatory agencies also require that corresponding test documentation be included with batch product records. PRODUCT FOCUS: PARENTERALSPROCESS FOCUS: DOWNSTREAM PROCESSING, SCALE-UPWHO SHOULD READ: QA/QC, PROCESS ENGINEERS, AND ANALYTICAL PERSONNELKEYWORDS: FILTRATION, INTEGRITY TESTING, VALIDATION, AUTOMATIONLEVEL: BASIC The function of integrity testing is to determine whether a particular filter is within or outside the validated specifications…