(557g) The Continuous Manufacturing of Pharmaceutical Capsules

New capabilities are being developed for continuous manufacturing systems as the use of this paradigm continues to become more widespread in the pharmaceutical industry. Continuous manufacturing allows for a high level of process control and knowledge. This enables process to be operated at a high level of quality while reducing cost. While most research and investment in the continuous manufacturing of oral solid dose (OSD) products has focused on the production of tablets, many products on the market are manufactured as capsules. In fact, most OSD products use encapsulation at some point during their development. Therefore, the development of a continuous operation with the capability to produce tablets at production scales (~200,000 capsules per hour) would allow the benefits of continuous manufacturing to be utilized by a wide range of products. This talk will describe the challenges and benefits inherent in the development and integrated of a full scale direct blend encapsulation process.