Research and development (R&D) is a critical part of pharmaceutical advancements. It allows people to find and create new products that could be life-changing for those that use them. However, professionals can’t do that essential work without the appropriate R&D lab equipment. Here are some of the pieces of equipment that are beneficial to the overall outcomes.
Coating Machines and Equipment
When pharmaceutical professionals create new tablets and pills, they often develop coatings simultaneously. The coatings:
- Conceal how the drug tastes, looks or smells
- Affect how the medication breaks down
- Protect delicate drugs from damage
- Prevent stomach acid from eroding drugs
A coating pan is one of the most basic ways to apply something to the outside of a medication. An electric motor makes the tablet bed rotate as the coating is applied to the tablets via an atomised spray. This method is generally faster than exposing the tablets to a liquid to coat them. It also gives a more uniform finish, saving time and providing high-quality results.
Some coating pans are partially or fully perforated. These products rotate on a horizontal axis and the system is entirely enclosed. In other set-ups, air-suspension or fluidized bed systems coat tablets, where air or fluid makes the tablets move towards a coating nozzle. These are typically chosen when the tablet’s core is especially fragile and at risk of damage from abrasion.
Coating tablets with sugar is a well-established method, but its primary downside is that it must occur in several steps. The time-consuming nature of that reality is one reason why people increasingly opt for polymer film coating. It can happen through just one step when individuals use either pan-spraying or pan-pouring methods.
Batch Reactor
Estimates suggest it can cost more than $2 billion to develop a new drug. That’s why organizations must weigh various factors to determine if it’s worthwhile to proceed. The aspects to consider range from the R&D lab equipment required to the market segment that would likely benefit from a new drug that reaches the market.
Some of the earliest steps associated with working on a new drug involve overseeing the associated chemical reactions. A batch reactor is the umbrella term for specialised vessels people in the pharmaceutical industry use to create controlled environments for chemical reactions.
Batch reactors’ small sizes make them ideal for monitoring the chemical reactions associated with the R&D phase of pharmaceutical production. These vessels also have built-in mixing devices that allow blending the various reactants with a liquid or solid catalyst. The pharmaceutical sector is one of the primary industries that still uses batch processing.
That’s because this method can be inefficient, resulting in longer lead times for drugs that are already widely manufactured and in consistent demand. However, the batch reactor is an essential piece of equipment for pharmaceutical R&D because it allows supervising reactions on a small scale.
Computers Equipped With Analytics Software
Many lab managers specializing in R&D regularly sell their older equipment to create room in the budget for new investments. Lab equipment’s resale value is usually proportional to its original price. However, everything depends on when the machine arrived on the market because depreciation can significantly affect the ultimate selling price.
However people manage their budgets, they must always aim to prioritise new technologies, including those that allow them to quickly analyse large amounts of data. Powerful computers equipped with specialised analytics software enable people to uncover valuable findings much faster than they otherwise might.
Research indicates data and analytics software can cause a 50% reduction in R&D drug costs, for example. Relatedly, it can shorten early-stage drug discovery timelines by 20 to 50%. Those are significant findings, particularly when pharmaceutical executives are eager to determine what works and what doesn’t before moving on to later development phases.
Despite strong indicators that data and analytics tools are worthy investments, many pharmaceutical companies still need to implement them to the desired extent. They may still be in the pilot phase or need to figure out how they want to use data and analytics products within specific workflows. However, those potential obstacles are not reason enough to avoid using these tools, particularly given the tremendous benefits they can bring.
API Isolator
The active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) in a product is the component that causes the desirable effects, whether to relieve pain, ease congestion or help someone manage a chronic illness. Although APIs are beneficial when within products on the market, they are often highly toxic to people. Plus, it’s often necessary to keep them separated from other compounds. That’s where API isolators come into play.
This piece of R&D lab equipment maintains a production area free from contaminants. That’s critical because anything introduced where people keep an API could cause unintended outcomes that slow experiments and add to overall drug development costs.
API isolators also have air treatment and filtration features. These components enable the renewal of air inside the chamber, further reducing contamination risks. Relatedly, the sterile environment inside an API isolator can be superior to that of a pharmaceutical cleanroom, provided people take the right preventive measures when using and working around them.
People can also tightly control the environment inside an API isolator, including by altering the temperature, air pressure and humidity levels. These capabilities facilitate careful recordkeeping during all research and development phases. For example, users can indicate the precise conditions that caused the desired API effect, then recreate such a setting as often as necessary.
Centrifuge
A centrifuge is an essential piece of R&D lab equipment because it uses centrifugal force to separate particles or fluids. However, there are particular types often used in the pharmaceutical industry depending on different needs.
For example, horizontal peeler centrifuges separate liquids from solids based on their differences in density. The drum’s high rotation speed makes suspended solids settle on the drum’s surface. There are also top discharge centrifuges, which people often prefer due to the way they can accommodate products in small batches and even work well with those that are difficult to filter.
Inverting filter centrifuges have a built-in system that automatically discharges the collected particulate matter. Plus, the discharge collection does not involve pressing or scraping the particulates, so it retains its shape.
Vertical peeler centrifuges are often the best choices when people need to separate products like insulin, penicillin or benzoic acid. One of their main selling points is that users can rely on them to separate pharmaceutical products, as well as bulk and fine chemicals.
The main factor to keep in mind is that people must choose centrifuges based on what they plan to do in the R&D lab. Alternatively, the next best strategy is to select those that are most versatile, particularly when plans still need to be set.
The Right R&D Lab Equipment Speeds Workflows
Although this is not an exhaustive list of R&D lab equipment, it includes many of the must-have items that’ll help employees work efficiently and without encountering preventable problems. You can use it as a reference point, whether you’re buying products new or looking for used versions of what you need.
