Focus on Pharma: INTERPHEX 2015 Wraps Up in New York

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Reported by Annette Kreuger, Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The 2015 INTERPHEX (International Pharma Expo) show was a resounding success. Whether seasoned industry veterans or new players to the market, the common theme was the strength of Pharmaceutical Industry and the enormous potential available for those offering a solid product or service. The show ran from April 21 to 23 at Javits Center, in New York City.

Click here for access to the 2015 North America Pharmaceutical & Biotech Industry Outlook.

A new feature at the show this year, sponsored by the Parenteral Drug Association (PDA), was the INTERPHEX Exhibitor Awards for 2015. The program was launched in November 2014 to recognize those INTERPHEX exhibitors offering the most effective and innovative pharmaceutical-biotech industry technologies and solutions, for both drug development and manufacturing.

This year's winners were:
Best in Show: Pall Life Sciences-Pall Corporation (Port Washington, New York)
Pall Life Sciences, a subsidiary of Pall Corporation (NYSE:PALL) (Port Washington, New York), was recognized for its new Cadence single-pass tangential flow filtration (SPTFF) technology, which uses a staged flow path design to achieve significantly higher concentration factors (2 to 4 times or greater) in one pump pass than is possible with conventional TFF systems that include a recirculation loop. The key innovation offered by the Cadence SPTFF technology is the ability to achieve the significant concentration of downstream biopharmaceutical process streams in a single pass, without the need for recirculation. With this technology, smaller volumes, higher titers and higher product recoveries are achieved, compared with those possible with conventional TFF systems.

Honorable Mention, Best in Show: GE Healthcare Life Sciences AxiChrom (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
GE Healthcare Life Sciences, a subsidiary of General Electric (NYSE:GE) (Fairfield, Connecticut), was recognized for the AxiChrom column platform, a revolutionary concept in column chromatography that has been extended to feature new 1.2- and 1.6-meter columns to overcome many of the challenges related to increasing column size. AxiChrom columns help reduce operation time with its automated packing methods. However, the intelligence of AxiChrom goes beyond automation: its purposeful design enables excellent chromatographic performance through its axial compression capabilities and distribution system properties.

Best New Product/Service: Apprentice Field Suite (Jersey City, New Jersey)
Apprentice Field Suite was awarded Best New Product/Service for the Apprentice Field Suite, a trio of applications exclusively for Smart Glasses, like the Epson Moverio or Google Glass, which empowers Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing operators and engineers to help them make informed decisions. The three apps, TANDEM, MANUALS and GAUGE, leverage Augmented Reality, Computer Vision, and the Myo Armband to provide essential data, process and workflow aids, and sophisticated troubleshooting interfaces that all integrate with existing systems.

Best Technologies Innovation: G-Con Manufacturing (Bryan, Texas)
G-Con Manufacturing (College Station, Texas) was recognized for the Portable, Continuous, Miniature and Modular (PCMM) platform. PCMM is a standardized production technology platform used for product development and commercial manufacturing offering a process analytical technology (PAT)-compatible process control solution for continuous wet granulation and continuous mixing/direct compression, enabling efficient transfer from development to clinical and commercial production without scale-up that is easy to deploy and ship. A key advantage is being able to use the same equipment throughout the entire product lifecycle. In addition, the PCMM platform combines equipment design, PAT, advanced process control, and engineering expertise to deliver a fully integrated cGMP facility using PODs.

Editor's Choice Award: Fette Compacting Gmbh (Schwarzenbek, Germany)
Fette Compacting (Schwarzenbek, Germany) was recognized for its entire FE series of tablet presses, displayed together for the first time at the same show. The core design philosophy threading its way through the FE series is that of Fette's Tri.Easy concept. Tri.Easy represents the simplification of the three primary aspects of tablet press use: changeover, operation and maintenance. The FE series fulfills the unique requirement of providing presses that can produce an ever greater number of tablets, while occupying less space on the manufacturing floor and simultaneously providing users with the technological versatility for compressing an overwhelming majority of potential tablets on one press.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, five offices in North America and 10 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.