A pharmaceutical factory smaller than a boxing ring was born

a small, fully automated assembly line can produce 4,800 pills an hour to meet a broader supply of drugs, according to a study published in Chemical Communications.
, the pharmaceutical industry is the least efficient of all chemicals. To save the space, time and resources needed to produce the drug, the researchers built a complete pharmaceutical plant of just 30.7 square meters.
Hu, Salvatore Mascia and colleagues at CONTINUUS Pharmaceuticals in Woburn, Massachusetts, usa, have created smaller pharmaceutical components than standard drug lines. These components save space and allow you to skip some of the steps required for conventional drug production.
researchers customized the device to make and purify an unresoled generic drug within 30 hours. The process is carried out in two steps, producing tiny crystals of the drug, which are then washed, dried and made into tablets. Sensors detect the purity of intermediate and final products at critical stages.
estimate that this method is 35% to 40% cheaper than the current method of producing generic drugs and consumes only 40% to 50% of energy.
plant equipment can be quickly reconfigured according to different doses or products, the researchers wrote. Such independent small pharmaceutical plants can decentralize drug production and reduce costs. (Source: Jin Nan, China Science Journal)
related paper information: