Earlier this summer, Equilibar engineers Ryan Heffner and Alan Black spent a productive week in Tokyo working with several of our Japanese customers and attending Biopharma Expo, a large pharmaceutical trade show.
According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, Japan is one of the largest pharmaceutical markets in the world and it is continuing to open up to more and more global endeavors. We’ve found this to be true. Collaborating with our distributor partners at Yashima Export & Import Co. has created opportunities we couldn’t have imagined even one year ago.
“It was super exciting to see the cutting-edge work going on Japan’s pharmaceutical industry,” Ryan said. “The use of robotics was notable as well as developments in the fields of new medicine and regenerative medicine.”
In particular, the fields of continuous manufacturing and flow chemistry hold promise for Equilibar’s unique fluid control technology. Flow chemistry involves a continuous stream of chemicals reacting within a tube or other container. It enables superior control of reaction parameters, which offers many benefits for researchers—more selective reactions, smaller inventory, fewer risks. Multiple reactions can be performed in sequence, which makes the process especially good for drug design. Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) are often produced in flow reactors.
Continuous Manufacturing (CM) is similar in that ingredients are moved continuously within a site of integrated components, saving time and offering the ability to easily respond to market changes. (The FDA offers information about transitioning to CM on this informative page.)
While these processes are not new, they are becoming more widespread throughout industry and are increasingly popular for pharmaceutical processes. “Continuous manufacturing is a trend that the entire Pharmaceutical / Biopharmaceutical industry is migrating to, both in permanent industrial applications and in single use biopharma systems,” Ryan said. “Our easily adjustable and compact devices offer multiple advantages for both pressure and flow control applications.”
For more information on Equilibar back pressure regulators and fluid control valves for pharmaceutical and other sanitary applications, contact one of our application engineers or visit our sanitary information page. We look forward to hearing from you.
