SDMicro™ helps pharmaceutical companies choose

For immediate release-September 18, 2000

The right process from the start

SDMicro™

Columbia, MD - The new SDMicro™ from Niro helps pharmaceutical companies evaluate spray drying during the early stages of product development. The new equipment will help companies identify the most appropriate isolation technique for the product to guarantee the most efficient manufacturing process.

It is essential right from the start to establish whether to use spray drying, freeze drying, or crystallization for the manufacture of a new drug. The cost and time required for validation allow little room for error. If a company chooses an inefficient manufacturing route at the outset, it may find it too expensive to change subsequently, locking the company into the manufacturing process for the lifetime of the product. Making the right decision at the start is, therefore, vital.

The SDMicro™ is a fully functional spray-drying plant in miniature. Niro used computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to design the smallest possible spray-drying chamber that retains the same airflow pattern as a full-scale production model. The resulting equipment can make test volumes of product at the smallest possible scale (100-200 grams) to give minimal product losses yet be capable of scale up to full-size manufacture without fundamental adjustments to the process.

The SDMicro™ uses compressed air for spray drying aqueous fluids. It is intrinsically safe in operation, making it also suitable for use with nitrogen for products dissolved in solvents. Product losses are minimized using a cyclone for initial collection and a bag filter to extract the maximum possible product from every run. The cyclone may be bypassed completely for collecting very fine powders. The SDMicro™ is easy to dismantle for simple cleaning and fast product switching. It is supplied to pharmaceutical companies fully validated and ready for use.

For further information:

Phone : 410-997-8700
Fax : 410-997-5021
Email : gea.pe.na@geagroup.com