Research Projects

This project is funded by a Cooperative Research and Development (CRD) grant awarded by NSERC.

The achievements of the last 10 years in the field of the development of tools for the analysis of pharmaceutical processes involving powders and granules make it possible to consider with great optimism their use to better understand the critical attributes of these processes. Mastery of these methods represents the basis of process optimization but also, in many cases, the conversion of batch processes into continuous processes.

This project focuses on processes and their intensification rather than on the development of PAT tools. It is located in the field of process engineering and it is highly original because, worldwide, the efforts are empirical in nature and the results are factual, while our projects analyze the "cause and effect" links between basic scientific principles and use them to understand the phenomena governing the processes.

The project primarily targets direct compression dry formulation processes which involve the handling of divided solids as well as semi-solids. The general objective of the project is two-fold:

• understand, model and optimize pharmaceutical processes involving divided solids;
• design new continuous process configurations based on our scientific and technical knowledge of existing discontinuous processes.

The projects also relate to:

• sticking of pharmaceutical powders during tablet compression;
• the integration of spectral probes (e.g. Raman, NIR) on the processes to obtain real-time data;
• wet granulation;
• fluidized bed drying;
• the development of chemometric models;
• sterilization of pharmaceutical products;
• the study of the stability of pharmaceutical products

The specific objectives of the project can be summarized as follows:

• apply developed PAT tools, preferably online, allowing to measure with precision and robustness the critical parameters of the studied processes;
• use these analyzes to understand the phenomena governing the processes and thus model and optimize these processes and develop design and scaling criteria;
• study batch processes on a pilot scale and design conversion protocols in continuous processes;
• test the protocols developed and establish criteria for scaling up.

Budget: This project is funded by a Cooperative Research and Development (CRD) grant awarded by NSERC.