Each year, exhibitors at INTERPHEX are invited to submit their new innovation or technology for a chance to be recognized. To win, the company or technology must excel in each criterion, demonstrate leading market knowledge and reflect excellence in the pharma, biotech, manufacturing and development industries. Here are the INTERPHEX Award Winners in each category for 2023.
Best in Show- IMA Life North America Inc.
INJECTA gloveless aseptic fill-finish system. INJECTA is a fully robotic fill-finish solution under isolator that was designed to prevent human intervention in Grade A aseptic areas, where filling and stoppering of vials and syringes take place, decreasing the risk of environmental contamination, boosting the efficiency and the quality of injectable products. It’s been conceived and designed specifically with the aim to provide the market with an ultimate evolution of aseptic processing, in an environment in which human intervention tends to be absent.
The INJECTA solution offers an automatic assembly system for the stopper feeding system made up of a hopper, linear feeder and parts for routing the stopper to the picking point. The implementation of advanced robotics plays a key role in achieving this result. Through this approach, the aseptic assembly of sterile components loaded with RTP is possible. The system does not lose the sterility guaranteed by the autoclave, does not come into contact with the operator, and is completely assembled in aseptic conditions following isolator decontamination.
Editor’s Choice - Schunk
ADHESO: Energy-Free Gripping Technology. Automation of picking, placing, and handling processes traditionally requires end of arm tools that use force generating mechanisms like air pressure, electric motors, or vacuum. ADHESO is a new gripping technology that requires no energy. Using the concept of Van der Waals forces, objects can be picked and placed in automated handling applications. Van der Waals force is the phenomenon that allows a gecko to climb vertical surfaces. This technology has been optimized in a high precision manufacturing process that allows it to be used as an end of arm tool. Requiring no energy or force generating mechanism to lift workpieces making it very environmentally friendly.
Sensitive and fragile workpieces can sometimes be damaged by high grip force of traditional end of arm tools. ADHESO offers a way to automate sensitive handling processes with reduced risk of damage sometimes seen with mechanical end of arm tools. Gripping large, small, heavy, or light workpieces is possible. ADHESO technology is 100% residue-free leaving nothing behind on the workpiece. This makes it ideal in cleanroom environments or if a workpiece needs to remain clear of any debris or marks. In the SCHUNK booth at INTERPHEX, ADHESO will be seen picking, placing, and handling glass vials in an automated medical application. Grippers and sample workpieces will be available for booth visitors to test the technology by hand.
Best Technologies Innovation - West Pharmaceutical Services
West Ready Pack™. Through a strategic partnership with Corning, one of the world’s leaders in glass science, West has created an integrated system that will help de-risk customers’ drug development and manufacturing processes by providing comprehensive product information in one DMF and end-to-end support. The Ready Pack system with Corning’s Valor® RTU Vials with SG EZ-fill Technology, offers a new pharmaceutical glass packaging technology. Valor RTU Vials with SG EZ-fill Technology pharmaceutical packaging helps to enhance the storage and delivery of drugs, provide more reliable access to medicines essential to public health, and optimize production efficiency. This purpose-built pharmaceutical glass is specifically designed to address the challenges of today’s manufacturing operations.
Best New Product/Service - DEC Group
BoMa Dosing System. The BoMa technology has been designed to provide an effective solution to work around speed, accuracy and flexibility problems encountered with current pumps. BoMa technology operates with pressure and vacuum. The dosage of all components of a recipe can be done in a few seconds, therefore providing high production capacities.
In the event of a product change, the installation is cleaned up very quickly due to the absence of pumps. BoMa systems can be used in many situations, just like a piston pump. The main advantage lies in the absence of seals, i.e. in the maintenance-free operation as well as in the ease of cleaning when the product is changed.
Biotech Innovation - PAK BioSolutions Inc.
Pilot PAK System. Company developed a GMP modular continuous processing system that lowers the hurdles of adopting new technologies. This technology was designed to (1) meet drug product demand, (2) provide modular, mobile manufacturing, and (3) reduce environmental impact.
Demand for Covid mAbs increased 20X in 2.5 months. To meet such demand, the system increases manufacturing capacity by employing continuous processing. The off-the-shelf system runs any four unit operations simultaneously, resulting in 4X more product.
The modular design accommodates different products and processes. Single-use product-contact surfaces allow for quick changes between products. The system is fully closed, can roll through a standard door, and plug into a standard outlet, allowing deployment in various locations.
Environmental impact is minimized with compact, single-use equipment, eliminating the need for CIP and SIP systems. Combining four steps shrinks facility footprint requirements another 60%.
Efficiency Champion - Thomas Processing
ACCELA CTC 500. Accela CTC is an advanced implementation of continuous tablet coating technology. Whereas the benefits of continuous coating versus batch coating are already understood, the Accela CTC coating system offers features never before implemented on continuous coaters. With this equipment, the pharmaceutical industry can more readily embrace continuous coating and realize its benefits in reduced consumption of raw materials, lower demand for purified water, improved process efficiency, reduced waste and an overall faster product lifecycle from development to pilot scale and onward to commercial production with greater agility and fewer risks. Accela CTC is a continuous flow processing system that is used to apply film coatings onto pharmaceutical tablets (compressed dosage forms). This equipment is applied to satisfy demands that cannot otherwise be met in batch tablet coaters. These situations occur in scaleup and transfer for newly developed drug products as well as cases where post-approval manufacturing changes are made to filed drugs already on market. Accela CTC involves the process of continuously feeding tablets into one end of the perforated drum while a corresponding flow of coated tablets is discharged at the other end. Pharmaceutical-grade spray nozzles are used to atomize a coating solution and apply it to the bed of continuously moving tablets. A combination of rotary “tumbling” motion is imparted along with the horizontal mass flow of incoming material to create the desired mixing action and bed movement down the length of the drum. The coating is equally distributed across the tablet bed. A continuous flow of heated air is delivered through the coater drum in a direction co-current with the coating spray. The heated air evaporates the coating solution’s solvent (typically water) to leave a thin, uniform film on the surface of the tablets. Accela CTC solves several problems associated with batch processing, and it also solves problems found in earlier continuous coating systems.
Subscribe to our e-Newsletters
Stay up to date with the latest news, articles, and events. Plus, get special
offers from American Pharmaceutical Review delivered to your inbox!
Sign up now!