CPPR Research Objectives

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Research Objectives of the Center

The broad objectives of the Center for Pharmaceutical Processing Research are to explore and develop new technology for pharmaceutical processing, to foster collaborative research projects between industrial and academic scientists, and to promote an interdisciplinary approach to training students in pharmaceutical process research and development.

The major research areas of the Center are:

1) study of the interaction between physical and mechanical properties of pharmaceutical materials and processing conditions, and how this interaction influences critical quality attributes of the final product. the long-term goal of this research is reduced trial-and-error empiricism in formulation and process development, with an accompanying reduced time to market for new pharmaceutical products.

2) exploration of new technology for process monitoring, which will result in improved product quality, reduced cost, ease of process validation, better safety assurance, or improved regulatory compliance.

Research projects supported by the Center include granulation, powder blending, process control, pharmaceutical applications of supercritical fluid technology, freeze-drying, nucleation and crystal growth processes during drying, filtration, sterilization of disperse systems, and microparticulate technology.

The lifeblood of the pharmaceutical industry is new products, and reduction of time-to-market is a critical success factor, since delays in product introduction of only a few months may translate to tens of millions of dollars in lost revenue. Minimizing time to market means minimizing false starts and excessive trial-and-error experiments in developing optimum formulation and processing conditions. Pharmaceutical companies are well aware of this, and pharmaceutical scientists continue to be in demand despite considerable consolidation and head-count reduction within the industry.

However, formulation and processing-related research has been an underemphasized area of graduate pharmaceutical education, largely because of the difficulty of funding this kind of research through sources such as NIH. The Center continues to enhance our educational objective of providing our students with first-rate training in a scientific approach to formulation and process research. This likewise benefits the pharmaceutical industry through acceleration of the drug development process.