Despite the challenging economic environment, this year's record number of entries for the CPhI Innovation Awards produced three worthy winners. "Given that competitive, regulatory and environmental challenges increasingly influence the pharma business landscape, innovation continues to be the key for market success," said CPhI event director Annemieke Timmers.
Winner of the Gold Award was Puleva Biotech Exxentia for its use of human breast milk to deliver probiotics to infants.
From the knowledge that Lactobacillus strains naturally present in human breast milk can be transported from gut to mammarian gland in lactating women, the company hypothesised that its Lactobacillus strains might compete, after oral administration, with pathogens in the breast. Hereditum probiotics may be an alternative or complementary treatment for staphylococcal lactational mastitis where antibiotherapy was previously unsuccessful.
Cambrex's Continuous Flow Microwave (CFM) reactor won silver for the company with its success in taking microwave chemistry out of the lab and into production. The CFM reactor brings the combined benefits of continuous-flow and microwave-heating to large-scale development and commercial pharmaceutical manufacturing, and its unique ability to handle heterogeneous flow chemistry makes it a truly versatile manufacturing option, says Cambrex.
Increased yields, better purity, lower reagent, catalyst and solvent usage plus greater reproducibility and faster scale-up will increase productivity and lower costs, thereby offering a potential solution to the increasing cost and quality pressure on the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry.
Albufuse from Novozymes Biopharma offers major clinical advantages by significantly increasing the halfâ€Âlife of drugs in the bloodstream, reducing the frequency of drug administration and dosage to the patient and was given the Bronze Award.
Some drugs have to be administered by a nurse at home or at a clinic. By using albufuse technology to improve the drug, the number of visits are limited, making the treatment more costâ€Âeffective - an increasingly important consideration due to growing healthcare costs and accessibility to medicine.
Reducing the dosage also lowers the toxicity levels in the patient, offering fewer side effects and a better quality of life.
Manufacturing Chemist offers it congratulations to all three Award winners, whose innovations will be covered in depth in the coming months.