Ocean Insight and Malvern develop Raman Spectrometer Solution for characterizing pharma materials

products-servicesOcean Insight
August 28th 2020

Ocean Insight (Ocean) has teamed up with world-leading instrument manufacturer Malvern Panalytical to develop a Raman spectrometry-based instrument for characterizing pharmaceutical materials, to ensure safer medications for patients.

The new instrument is a particle analyzer powerful enough to help customers better understand and utilize materials, yet flexible enough for a diverse array of industries.

Pharma challenge

Pharmaceutical manufacturers need fullest understanding of ingredient materials to enhance product performance, improve process efficiencies and offer better value to customers.

Determining critical material characteristics in drug ingredients allows better control of formulation and processing. Also, validating active pharmaceutical ingredients (the chemical and biological components of drugs) is necessary to ensure that formulations match the original drug as patents expire, or can be used to develop generics that are still safe while avoiding the typical clinical testing costs required with innovative drugs.

All of the above means pharma companies require access to the most precise analytical tools to deliver pivotal insights into the chemical, physical and structural properties of materials.

Superior morphology integration

A go-to scientific instrumentation provider for the pharma industry, Malvern Panalytical specialises in instruments that characterizes the length, width and shape of particles in samples ranging from building materials to pharmaceuticals. In recent years, Malvern has enhanced its particle analyzers by adding on Raman spectroscopy, providing chemical identification capabilities and adding a further level of material analysis.

Ocean Insight was confident in providing for Malvern a smaller, more flexible alternative to its previous Raman system, which was large, unwieldy and not fully integrated with its Malvern Morphologi-brand particle analyzers. This also represented an opportunity to improve the Raman system performance, as Ocean’s approach is more flexible and easily optimized.

“All system components were selected, designed, and assembled synergistically. Ocean has remained engaged with Malvern throughout the project, strengthening our relationship on the Morphology ID system,” says Ocean Insight’s Adrian Hatton.

Integrated solution

Ocean Insight worked closely with Malvern to define the technical scope of the project. By drawing on shared expertise in applications, optics, software, testing and commercialization, Ocean overcame the technical challenges of integrating a Raman subsystem with the particle analyzer into a single platform. This involved developing an optical design capable of making maximum use of laser light and optical pathways. There was also intense focus on easier calibration procedures, to help users master challenging Raman techniques.

Each subsystem component; spectrometer, laser, optics and software; was designed, selected and assembled in synergy with Malvern to optimize the result.

Flexibility within the system design will allow Ocean and Malvern to adapt the system to changing industry needs, from creating better-performing building materials like cement to extracting more meaningful information from geological deposits to predict future environmental conditions.

Ocean Insight and Malvern Panalytical remain engaged as the project further evolves, aligning service, support and supply chains to meet future needs.

Resources

Click on Pharma Drug Characterization to see full case study.

Ocean Insight and Malvern develop Raman Spectrometer Solution for characterizing pharma materials

More sophisticated particle characterization and material analysis are crucial to superior pharma products