MIP Technologies has announced that it has received funding for a four-year project, including funding for a three-year PhD position, to develop new molecular purification techniques.
The European Union-funded project, New Molecular Purification Techniques for API Production (Nemopur), under the European Commission's Marie Curie Initial Training network within the 7th Framework Programme, aims to offer a solution to the purification of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) by combining Organic Solvent Nanofiltration (OSN) with MIPs.
The project's focus will be on the removal of contaminant organic compounds from APIs.
The network consists of three universities, two small and medium-sized companies, including MIP Technologies and the four end-users: Hovione SA, UCB Pharma SA, GlaxoSmithKline and Lonza, which will provide input on the choice of purification systems and validation of the purification methods developed.
In the development and manufacturing of APIs and their intermediates, purification consumes the bulk of the processing time and cost.
Burgeoning technological advances in analysis, which make detection of impurities at ever lower levels possible, exacerbates the time and cost demands.
At the same time, there is a growing expectation among patients regarding the efficacy, safety and purity of medicines.
These trends have created an urgent need for new molecular purification technologies in pharmaceutical production.
The overall goal of Nemopur is to make a paradigm shift in the approach to purifying API intermediates.
An essential feature of this project will be the interdisciplinary nature of the partners and the fact that they bring inter-sectorial competence to the network, spanning academic, technology SME, and end user sectors.
