Pfizer, GSK and Siemens join R&D consortium with A*STAR' on pharma production

US and UK pharma giants Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) and GlaxoSmithKline’s (LSE: GSK) units Pfizer Asia Pacific Pte and Glaxo Wellcome Manufacturing Pte, respectively, and Siemens Pte have signed on as founding members of a new A*STAR R&D Consortium Program - Innovative Processing of Specialties and Pharmaceuticals (iPSP). Launched by Singapore-based A*STAR's Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences (ICES), the consortium offers a platform for pharmaceutical and specialty chemicals industry players to address various challenges such as costs, regulatory compliance and responsiveness in production and processes to bring drugs from trials to markets.

The consortium program brings together industry leaders to address an increasingly urgent need to access emerging "next generation manufacturing" technologies that provide quantum change improvements in cost, quality, environmental impact and process robustness in pharmaceutical manufacturing processes. The advancement in technologies and adoption of best practices in processing technologies will help companies drive up productivity and maximize manpower development to maintain their competitive edge.

The program also offers a unique platform for members to interact, develop and grow the industry processing technology knowledge base by facilitating the technology transfer and manpower development in advanced chemical processing technologies. The program draws on established resources and capabilities at ICES. These include the Kilo Scale Laboratory, pilot scale multipurpose continuous plant, a fully equipped development laboratory and staff experienced in process development and operation. The Institute's core skill areas including chemistry, chemical engineering, analytics, control, formulation science and catalysis form a strong basis for the development of innovative manufacturing approaches. The program will see research activities undertaken in industrially relevant areas like process analytics (PAT), Quality by Design (Qbd) as well as continuous manufacturing systems.