Going Conti in the Virtual World

Now gaining momentum in the pharmaceutical industry, continuous manufacturing (CM) presents a new approach to oral solid dosage (OSD) form production and meets the industry’s demands for faster product development, reduced costs and increased manufacturing flexibility.

Generating a significant level of interest at this year’s CPhI Worldwide event in Frankfurt, Germany, was GEA’s ConsiGma® — a multipurpose platform that has been designed to transform powder into coated tablets indevelopment, pilot, clinical and production volumes in a single compact unit.

In the on-stand Continuous Experience area, attendees were able to journey into the world of virtual reality and take a closer look at the ConsiGma® CDC 50 Continuous Direct Compression system, which recently produced more than 15 million tablets during a 120-h trial run, and the ConsiGma® Coater, our revolutionary, high performance tablet coating technology that accurately deposits controlled amounts of coating materials on tablets— even if they are hygroscopic or friable.

Dr Jim Holman, GEA New Development & Innovation Pharma, explained: "GEA designs and manufactures a wide range of complex equipment and cutting-edge machinery. Virtual reality (VR) allows us to present those technologies in a comprehensible way and greatly facilitates processes such as operator training and the breakdown or disassembly (and reassembly) of plant for cleaning and maintenance."

Arco Hamelink, Vice President Global sales, Pharma solids, added: "We see VR as an enabling tool that we can use to communicate the benefits of our solutions to both existing and future customers and demonstrate the full potential of platforms such as ConsiGma® without actually having a finished line in place. In fact, with VR, we can provide guidance and train users to successfully operate complicated pharmaceutical manufacturing systems long before the hardware has actually been delivered and installed. Feedback about the virtual reality solution was so overwhelmingly positive that we’ve decided to recreate the experience at the upcoming pharmtech & ingredients event in Moscow on 19-22 November and P-MEC India inDelhi on 26-28 November," said Arco, adding: "It’s a quite a commitment but we feel the customer benefits are well worth the effort."

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