Malvern Video Interview Highlights NIR-CI As Tool For Pharma

In an interview recorded at IFPAC 2008, Dr Neil Lewis, Chief Technology Officer for Malvern Instruments, and a pioneer in the field of chemical imaging, highlights the value of Near Infrared Chemical Imaging (NIR-CI) for the pharmaceutical industry. He explains how SyNIRgi, a fully automated NIR-CI system from Malvern Instruments, is providing information that is needed for the development of increasingly complex pharmaceutical products. The interview can be seen at www.pharmamanufacturing.com/multimedia/2008/IFPAC_Malvern.html

In a wide ranging discussion, Dr Lewis explains how the trend towards more complex pharmaceutical products requires a more sophisticated analytical approach. NIR-CI simultaneously delivers size, shape and chemical information rather than measuring just one variable – composition or hardness, for example - making it a truly multimodal technique Researchers are increasingly recognizing these capabilities as essential for the development of products where the distribution of the active ingredient critically influences performance.

Other topics covered in the interview include: ISys, Malvern's powerful, industry standard, data analysis software developed to draw information from the thousands of raw spectra produced in a single NIR-CI measurement; and the impact of QbD on the uptake of new analytical solutions.

About Malvern Instruments
Malvern Instruments provides a range of complementary materials characterization tools that deliver inter-related measurements reflecting the complexities of particulates and disperse systems, nanomaterials and macromolecules. Analytical instruments from Malvern are used in the characterization of a wide variety of materials, from industrial bulk powders to the latest nanomaterials and delicate macromolecules. A broad portfolio of innovative technologies is combined with intelligent, user-friendly software. These systems deliver industrially relevant data enabling our customers to make the connection between micro (such as particle size) and macro (bulk) material properties (rheology) and chemical composition (chemical imaging).

Particle size distribution, particle shape information, zeta potential, molecular weight, chemical composition, and bulk materials properties can all be determined with instruments from the Malvern range. The company's laboratory, at-line, on-line and in-line solutions are proven in sectors as diverse as cement production and pharmaceutical drug discovery.

Headquartered in Malvern, UK, Malvern Instruments has subsidiary organizations in all major European markets, North America, China, Korea and Japan, a joint venture in India, a global distributor network and applications laboratories around the world. www.malvern.com

SOURCE: Malvern Instruments