An Idea From 1908 May Cut The Cost And Speed Up The Production Of Medicines
Sunday, September 8, 2013 - 22:10
in Physics & Chemistry
Medicine of the 21st century is getting a hand from an idea Henry Ford had in the 19th century and implemented in 1908 - the concept of continuous mass production. Billions of tablets, capsules and other forms of medicine that people take each year are still made made batch-wise. A batch of ingredients typically undergoes a series of batch-wise reactions with isolation of solid intermediates before finally being isolated and drummed into bulk containers. The active pharmaceutical ingredient then moves on to the next step, processing into a granular form, followed by collecting into bulk containers. The processing continues through drying and other stages before being compressed into tablets and coated. read more