Participants in the workshop sponsored by Freeman Technology and C-Therm Technologies, held on 17 November at the 2008 AAPS Annual Conference and Exposition in Atlanta, were given practical insights on the topic of ‘Powder Flow & Process Analytical Technology – Tools for Implementation of QbD’.
Christina Pattoni from Pfizer spoke about her team’s use of the Freeman Technology FT4 Powder Rheometer, while Stephen Closs from Patheon shared his experiences of using the C-Therm ESP Thermal Effusivity instrument, and Stephen Wu of Covidien talked about both technologies in respect of work with pharmaceutical lubricants. Each presentation prompted lively debate, highlighting the many challenges people share when it comes to successfully processing powders.
Tim Freeman, Director of Operations for Freeman Technology, and Rob Pugh, ESP Product Manager at C-Therm, planned the event to be valuable for anyone seeking greater understanding of different formulation and PAT tools to facilitate QbD. As well as the contributions of the invited speakers, presentations on the basics of thermal effusivity and on powder characterization provided additional background information on the analytical technologies themselves.
“The workshop was well attended and well received,” said Tim Freeman. “We are particularly grateful to our invited speakers for taking the time to share their experiences.”
“This is the seventh year we’ve held this type of informal workshop and the first time with Freeman Technology,” commented Rob Pugh. “Participant feedback is always extremely positive as it’s a great forum for sharing experiences. It was the same again this year with some particularly informative discussions taking place aside from the formal presentations. We plan to continue hosting similar events in the future.”