Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc, one of the world leaders in serving science based in the US, announced on July 29 a cooperation agreement
with Agere Pharmaceuticals Inc, an integrated specialty drug delivery company, which will enable customers to accelerate formulation development of pharmaceutical compounds.
Thermo Fisher will install its Thermo Scientific Pharma 16 HME twin-screw extruder at the Agere GMP facility located in Bend, Oregon, the US. Agere can provide knowledge of solid dispersions and Thermo Fisher offers experience in hot melt extrusion, which will provide customers the ability to access process or formulation development, scale-up and GMP manufacturing at just one site. Customers will also be able to evaluate formulations using novel testing methodologies and rank formulations with respect to anticipated bioavailability.
“To more quickly develop new formulations, our hot melt extruders offer the latest technology to efficiently produce solid solutions or dispersions in pharmaceutical applications,” said Karl Gerhard Hoppmann, Vice President and General Manager, Thermo Fisher Scientific Material Characterization. “We are excited to combine our hot melt extrusion portfolio with Agere’s experience in formulation development. This will provide our customers with easy access to our instruments and it also offers them a complete hot melt extrusion solution for individual pharmaceutical applications.”
“Twin-screw melt extrusion is an enabling technology for many critical formulation challenges in the pharmaceutical industry,” said Dan Smithey, Chief Scientific Officer, Agere. “We look forward to offering this exciting Thermo Scientific technology to our customers and to demonstrate its utility in our cGMP manufacturing facilities.”
