For the millions of people battling disease in America, medical innovation is what helps patients live longer, more active lives. Yet innovation begins far from the consumer shelf, as a basic idea developed in a small laboratory or office. When researchers decide to push forward with this idea, it enters the drug research and development (R&D) process, where its synthesis method is optimized. On comparison of the resulting experimental methods, one would see that a large proportion involve homogenization, specifically using high pressure. Keep reading to better understand the advantages of high-pressure homogenization for R&D, and ultimately for disease prevention and treatment.
- Reduction of particle size to enhance chemical and physical qualities. So many of the pharmaceutical products we are exposed to are synthesized through particle size reduction- vaccines, vaccine adjuvants, nutraceuticals, and antibiotics are just a few of the more recognizable titles. Homogenizer technology is one of few that can achieve both small particle size and uniform consistency, which benefits products by increasing bioavailability and chemical stability, as well as enhancing physical appearance.
- Improved API delivery. The active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) contained within pharmaceutical products must be treated sensitively, as changes in factors like heat and pH can cause irreversible API delivery. Mixing processes using heat should therefore be avoided; high pressure homogenizers, in contrast, use force as opposed to heat, which preserves the API and increases its bioavailability. Another contributing factor is the ability of homogenizers to reduce particle size (as indicated above). Smaller particles are more easily digested, which also contributes to this better API distribution.
- Better scaling for drug development. The drug development process contains many hurdles, too high for most products in the R&D stage to overcome. However, for those products that do enter clinical trials and beyond, their success largely depends on the scalability of the equipment being used. While many mixing methods exist, the scalable homogenizer can increase cost savings, lower time requirements, and decrease the product’s likelihood of failure.
Pion: High-Quality BEE Brand Pharmaceutical Homogenizers
As your potential product moves through the drug development process, it will need to prove its value in both safety and effectiveness to even get to the manufacturing stage of drug development; this can be accomplished by utilizing high quality equipment in the R&D phase, clinical trials, and again in the manufacturing phase.
Pion produces homogenizers that can yield a variety of relevant products, such as emulsions, suspensions, dispersions and lipids. Importantly, these products go on to make up the injectables, inhalants, anesthetics, and vaccinations that attain FDA approval for manufacturing. In addition, we have extensive experience assisting its product users as they transition through the drug development process.
