Manufacturing

Patricia Van Arnum was executive editor of Pharmaceutical Technology.

Articles

The European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA), the trade association representing European pharmaceutical manufacturers, issued recommendations to the public consultation launched in March by the European Commission's proposed drug anticounterfeiting measures. EFPIA's proposal includes a ban on drug repackaging.

EFPIA Recommends Drug Anticounterfeiting Measures

Jim Miller is president of PharmSource Information Services, Inc., and publisher of Bio/Pharmaceutical Outsourcing Report.

The recent heparin contamination event calls for a new approach to manage a lengthening pharmaceutical supply chain.

Weak Link in the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain

Researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology described a fast method to detect counterfeit "Tamiflu," Roche's drug for preventing and treating bird flu.

Researchers Develop Fast Method to Detect Counterfeit Tamiflu

Sophisticated replication techniques have made counterfeiting and fraud a serious threat to the pharmaceutical industry.

Trends: Holograms and Anticounterfeiting

Developing cold chain solutions

Manufacturing facilities must be inspected by members of regulatory bodies. Howeverâ€¦ these bodies are woefully inadequate at performing the task.

Out of Africa: the pharma challenge

Draft federal legislation that would require high-risk chemical facilities to use inherently safer technology for reducing their risk may present potential problems for custom and batch manufacturers supplying the pharmaceutical industry.

IST Measures Raise Concern for the Pharma Supply Chain

How much do you know about parallel trade? Perhaps you may have heard someone mention these words and have then switched off. In a sense, it's hardly surprising given the fact that most media coverage centres on interpretation of complex legal cases. By the time you reach the end of these types of articles, you can't work out what the mentioned companies were arguing about in the first place and on which technical details the case was judged. Yet, time after time, a legal ruling on a parallel trade issue rockets to the front pages of the pharmaceutical press and even, occasionally, the mainstream media.

Who's afraid of parallel trade?

Never has greater pressure been applied to pharmaceutical manufacturers. Shelf space competition for branded drugs has reached aggressive proportions and now even prescription drugs vie for pricing and delivery. Against this is a backdrop of ever-increasing downward price pressures, and a spectrum of progressively more stringent legislative and quality requirements. Finally, regional markets now demand different tamper evidence technology, anticounterfeiting measures and safeguards against interference by biological terrorists. Much of which points to the need for innovation in packaging - not just in terms of pack styles and sizes, but also cost.