Pharma Companies excited about DynoChem at London User Meeting

If science is about innovation and lateral thinking then both these qualities have been on display at DynoChem’s London User Conference as scientists from GSK, Pfizer and AstraZeneca amongst others have been describing this morning the wide variety of ways in which they’re using our software when scaling up their experiments.

For example, thanks to DynoChem GSK can remove impurities from drugs in development even more quickly and efficiently, while Pfizer Ringaskiddy is using the programme’s Parameter Fitting facility to scale up hydrogenations. AstraZeneca’s microwave reactor is being used in conjunction with DynoChem to produce more accurate predictions in their experiments.


“When you work for a company you’re usually focussed on your own problems and challenges so it’s great to find out about the challenges faced by other companies and the problem solving tools they’re using with them,” says Garry O’Connor of Pfizer (pictured right).

“The presentations this morning have been very interesting because they’ve been so diverse,” he adds. “Seeing the different ways that DynoChem is being used has been a real eye opener for me – especially seeing how other scientists are combining it with other problem solving methodologies.”

It’s not just during the sessions themselves that ideas have been exchanged and new ideas shared. The lunch break – and even the team photograph - have also provided excellent opportunities for swapping suggestions and tips for using DynoChem.

 
“The great thing about these user conferences is that you get a chance to network with other chemists but you also hear about the science,” says Dave Dale of SciMed (pictured right) who was previously at Pfizer was 35 years.

Like many scientists who have seen their testing times and their costs cut thanks to DynoChem, both Garry and Dave would like to see the system rolled out to a wider audience.

“There is a perception sometimes that DynoChem can only be used as a chemical engineering tool but it could be more readily accessible to mainstream chemists,” says Garry O’Connor.

As Dave Dale puts it: “Traditionally DynoChem has been used by specialists but it can be picked up by non-experts and used to solve problems. DynoChem should be for the masses!” Message received loud and clear!

Next stop London

This coming week sees our third and final User Meeting of 2011, at the Royal Society, London.

We've got another great program of 10 Industry presentations and look forward to the insights these will provide for our attendees from across Europe.

The programme (UK times, 25 May) is:

8:15 AM “Process Model = Process Understanding ??”, Bernd Schmidt, AstraZeneca

8:55 AM “Scaling up and Plant-to-Plant Transfer of Safety Data for an Exothermic Reaction”, Tom Vickery, Merck

9:25 AM “A Data Driven Model Based Approach to Hydrogenation Scale-up in the API Industry”, Rob Foley, Pfizer

10:10 AM “Models, Mass Balances, and Analytical Data”, Wilfried Hoffmann, Pfizer

10:50 AM “Reaction Kinetics as a Tool to Underpin Control Strategy”, Neil Hodnett, GlaxoSmithKline

11:20 AM “Modelling an SNAr Reaction; Kinetics from a Microwave Reactor”, Rob Woodward, AstraZeneca

1:15 PM “Thermal Scale-up – Vessel Characterization and Reaction Modelling with DynoChem”, Marcello Bosco, Roche

1:45 PM “Applications in Equipment Comparability for Scale up of an API Process”, Steve Jeffery, Lilly

 2:30 PM “Applications in Kilo Lab Flow Chemistry and Scale-up” Edel Hughes, Pfizer

3:00 PM “Modeling Solid-Liquid Separations: Fine-tuning the Filtration Model” Roel Hoefnagels, Janssen

A big thanks to all our speakers and to users travelling to London this week, and to our own team that organizes the event.

The final program for the London meeting, including abstracts, can now be downloaded here [DynoChem Resources login required].

Registration is still open here. 

Attendees from the Mumbai and Chicago meetings can watch proceedings by live webcast on the "DynoCam".  Contact Steve Cropper for more information.  

Jerry Salan of Nalas Engineering wins prize for best application presentation at DynoChem 2011 User Meeting

Congratulations to Jerry Salan of Nalas Engineering, who won the prize for Best Application Presentation at the DynoChem User Meeting in Chicago last week.  Jerry presented on “Pilot Scale Design and Continuous Manufacture of Novel Explosives Using Kinetic Modelling” and gave a great illustration of how to design a flow process quickly using a kinetic model and use the results to predict scale-up. Some even referred to Jerry's talk as 'DynoMite'.

Paul Thomas of PharmaQbD.com reported on the meeting and you can find out more here.

More pictures of this, the Mumbai and London meetings will be available shortly.

America's Got DynoChem Talent

Judging from the program for our Chicago User Meeting next week (11 May), America does indeed have DynoChem talent.

If you're coming to the meeting, try to reach the hotel by 7 or 8PM on 10 May, for our informal social event. Not to be missed!

Keerthi Pemula from Dr Reddys wins Best Presentation prize at DynoChem India User Meeting

Congratulations to Keerthi Pemula from Dr Reddys, who won the prize for Best Presentation at the DynoChem User Meeting in Mumbai last week.  Keerthi presented on “Development of Kinetic Model and Process Predictions” and gave an excellent illustration of how to identify reaction mechanisms using a kinetic model and use the results to improve process performance. Particularly notable was the ability of the model to track impurities as well as the main substrate and product components.

Keerthi’s prize included a ball and stick for playing the ancient Irish game of Hurling, reputed to be the fastest game in the world on grass.  Presenting the prize, Joe Hannon of Scale-up Systems commented that it symbolized the theme of the conference, to Accelerate Pharma Process Development.

The meeting was very well attended, presentations were of a high standard and there was real energy and momentum evident for adoption of DynoChem process modeling as an integral part of process development and scale-up.  Here is one of the group shots.  More pictures available shortly.  

Mumbai next week

It's been a busy few months at Scale-up Systems.  Online content at DynoChem Resources continues to improve and extend, while our best ever release, DynoChem 2011 is now available to download.  For the next month or so, we will be hosting the industry at DynoChem user meetings in Mumbai (next week), Chicago and London.  More details here.

Great Bards of QbD: Dr Seuss?

There are not many poets associated with QbD, so this next one is a bit of a stretch to include in the series.  The technical QbD contribution comes from Dr Art Etchells, the outstanding fluid mixing consultant who had a long and distinguished career at DuPont and now teaches and consults more widely.  For an example of Art's work, see his chapter on pipeline mixing in the Handbook of Industrial Mixing.  Anyone designing flow chemistry systems will find this material useful and we are building related tools for our users.

The rhymes and philosophical contribution are from Dr Seuss, to whom I was introduced by Art [tenuous connection - Ed] while walking in downtown Philadelphia about 10 years ago.  I was looking for books for my daughter and being European had not heard much about Dr Seuss.  After Art's introduction, we never looked back and my daughter went on to read early and well.  I was struck by the quality of the writing and still pick up the books today, while she has outgrown them.

One in particular seems to encapsulate much of the QbD journey: I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew (aka The Desired State).  You can buy the book at Amazon, for example - I recommend it for any age.

The pre-QbD era is remembered with nostalgia early on:

I was once happy and carefree and young

And I lived in a place called the valley of Vung

And nothing, not anything ever went wrong...

Until one day, a defect / deviation / excursion from a poorly understood process occurs:

Sock! What a shock!

I stubbed my big toe

On a very hard rock

And I flew through the air

And I went for a sail

And I sprained the main bone

In the tip of my tail!

A better way to work is needed, and our hero devises a plan:

If I watch out for rocks

With my eyes straight ahead

I'll keep out of trouble

Forever, I said.

This univariate approach does not work:

And I learned there are troubles

Of more than one kind

Some come from ahead

And some come from behind.

In an apparent reference to a proven acceptable range (PAR):

I'll watch out for trouble in front and back sections

By aiming my eyeballs in different directions.

There were some difficulties with the PAT instrumentation:

I found this to be

Quite a difficult stunt

But now I was safe

Both behind and in front.

And the multivariate nature of problems makes things more difficult:

Then new troubles came ...

From above!

And below!

And now I was really in trouble, you know.

An adviser of sorts comes to his aid (in a 'One Wheeler Wubble'; e.g. via a LinkedIn group), promising:

I'm off to the city of Solla Sollew (Desired State)

On the banks of the beautiful River Wah-Hoo

Where they never have troubles! At least, very few.

They jump aboard the adviser's camel, but later encounter unforeseen issues:

So there, there we were in a dreadful position

Our camel now needed a camel physician.

In a familiar twist, our hero ends up carrying both adviser and camel, while the adviser reassurres that:

This is called teamwork.  I furnish the brains

You furnish the muscles, the aches and the pains.

The journey continues with more learning experiences until finally Solla Sollew is reached, only to find that troubles have come to light even in that fabled place and the natives tell our hero:

And I'm off to the city of Boola Boo Ball...

Where they never have troubles! No troubles at all!

The hero thinks of going there, then has second thoughts:

So I started to go

But I didn't.

Instead...

I did some quick thinking

Inside of my head.

He decides to return home and solve his own problems, by obtaining appropriate tools:

I've bought a big bat

I'm all ready, you see

Now my troubles are going

To have troubles with me!

Back in the real world, there are more than two hundred of those 'bats' in DynoChem Resources. 

You can hear all about them from our customers at the DynoChem 2011 Meetings in Mumbai, Chicago and London.