STEPHEN HOULDSWORTH
VP, Global Head of Platform Management & Marketing, CordenPharma International

Abstract

The pharmaceutical industry is rightfully lauded for its innovation. In fact, we choose to use the word “innovator” to describe the companies that develop new therapies..

The pharmaceutical industry is rightfully lauded for its innovation. In fact, we choose to use the word “innovator” to describe the companies that develop new therapies to solve our unmet medical needs in the future. Why then, does the industry continue to be a slow adopter of more efficient technologies that have demonstrated similar capabilities in the petrochemical and bulk chemical industries for decades?

I am referring to the pharmaceutical industry’s insistent reliance on batch manufacturing, as opposed to exploring the continual advances available in flow chemistry and continuous manufacturing technologies. Our industry trusts the proven traditional batch approach, presumably because the vast majority of the leaders and decision makers are trained in batch manufacturing or batch mode. But if we dig a little deeper, it could be that much of the resistance to new technologies is, to a certain extent, fear of the unknown or lack of hands-on experience. Why take a risk on an “untested” innovative approach or technology when you can rely on a tried, tested and true approach? Yet the recent data shows an increasing number of regulatory approvals ...