Within the field of health, it is essential to have the knowledge, but the team is also important. It is of little help to be a trained person if you do not have the right tools or infrastructure. While technology plays a fundamental role in designing state-of-the-art equipment. All this leads to a microscope created specifically for pharmaceutical industry.
IR microscopes are commonly found in pharmaceutical laboratories around the world for use in product development, quality control, and even analysis of counterfeit drugs. By generating images with chemical selectivity, they enable laboratories to reduce manufacturing times and product variability. In essence, they help shorten time to market and reduce product failures. So what’s so special about the new Nicolet RaptIR FTIR microscope?
Scientists use an IR microscopy system to take a wide view of the sample so they can find where APIs, excipients, or polymorphs are found. Then the need arises to zoom in on the areas of interest to analyze them in greater detail. Traditional IR microscopy systems are good at one thing or another – either examining the wide field of view to find areas of interest or zooming in on a small area to analyze the contents therein. The new Nicolet RaptIR microscope equips users to perform both types of analysis on the same system. Not only can they find the needle in the haystack, but they can also view it in high resolution to determine exactly what type of needle it really is, saving time and leading to better results for the lab.
This new microscope not only generates impressive, high-quality visual images, but also enables measurements to be taken across the entire infrared spectrum, encompassing both organic and inorganic. The possibilities of use in the pharmaceutical sector are numerous.
QA
A busy quality control lab needs fast, accurate results to test drug batches before they are released. They look at batch-to-batch variation, identify foreign particles, and assess chemical composition to troubleshoot problems or address claims. The new Nicolet RaptIR FTIR microscope with its speed, agility and accuracy, provides analytical results in minutes so users can quickly analyze samples with minimal effort and high accuracy.
Product development
During product development, Research and Development (R&D) scientists aim to control and optimize dissolution or distribution of materials by adjusting and refining formulations and processes. In addition to solid and oral dosage forms, inhaled pharmaceuticals are of particular interest. Inhaled products are often administered with metered dose inhalers (MDIs), where drug distribution, agglomerate and crystallinity of active ingredients are of paramount importance.
The Nicolet RaptIR microscope offers ultra-fast chemical mapping of large areas so that Research and Development scientists can compare not only the eroded profile of a drugbut simultaneously obtain information on the distribution of the API, the crystallinity of the API and evaluate/characterize the agglomeration of the particles.
Identification of foreign particles
The identification of foreign particles is of vital importance for pharmaceutical laboratories. Scientists use IR microscopy to identify non-protein particles and distinguish them from protein particles.
The Nicolet RaptIR microscope offers a unique solution for the identification of foreign particles in parenteral, biological and ophthalmic solutions. With a single step from image acquisition to analysis report, the new microscope provides fast results in the particle analysis workflow, especially with its ability to find the needle in the haystack…that is, it provides a wide field of view to identify particles along with the ability to refine them with high resolution. Of particular value here is the system’s ability to produce transmission, reflection, and attenuated total reflection (ATR) mode measurements for particle analysis.
Development of biological formulations
During the formulation of biotherapeutic products, pharmaceutical laboratories need to evaluate the stability of the proposed formulations. Chemical and physical factors such as unstable temperatures or shear rate exposure during storage can lead to interactions that negatively affect the bioactivity of the therapeutic agent.
IR microscopy can analyze the secondary structures in these cases to help a pharmaceutical company understand and address such interactions before bringing a biotherapeutic product to market. Once again, the extraordinary ability of the Nicolet RaptIR microscope to analyze a wide field of view, reveal areas of interest, and provide high-resolution images of areas of interest can benefit users by helping them identify situations of concern more quickly and safely. .
Of course, there are countless other applications for the new capabilities of the Nicolet RaptIR FTIR Microscope. The clarity of the images is really something to see, but the ability to find areas of interest and examine them at high resolution in a single instrument is a real benefit that any scientist can agree is a vast improvement over search for that little needle in the haystack.