Alessandra Vizza, Regional Business Director, Corning Reactor Technologies talks about Advanced-Flow Reactors (AFR) and explains how it can help Indian pharma companies upscale their production output by providing continuous process production capacity of up to hundreds of kilograms per hour, the company’s plans for the Indian market and more, in interaction with Lakshmipriya Nair
Tell us about Corning’s Advanced-Flow Reactors. What are the efficiencies and benefits that this technology can usher into pharma manufacturing?
Advanced-Flow Reactors enable greater efficiency in production as compared to traditional batch reactors due to their smaller footprint in manufacturing facilities and ability to scale from the laboratory to full production in less than half the time it takes in batch production systems. Starting materials are dosed into Advanced-Flow Reactors to flow through heart-shaped mixing structures which are specially designed to promote thorough mixing while keeping intense heat exchange to ensure isothermal conditions. These features allow the production of a large portfolio of desired chemical reactions such as nitration, chlorination, oxidation, hydrogenation, and many others. The ability to control the feed ingredient ratios into the reactors could enable companies to safely produce a specifically desired quantity of a product at consistent quality and at a lower cost. Backed by Corning’s engineering and production experience, continuous flow can provide an economically and environmentally sound alternative to batch production. With the potential for more efficient material use, lower waste production, and higher safety margins, Corning’s Advanced-Flow Reactor technology offers fine and speciality chemical, as well as pharma manufacturers a cost-effective solution to meet the current demand for their products.
Why will this technology suit the cost-sensitive Indian market, given the current scenario where it is trying to be more self-reliant?
Consistently producing a unique balance of properties for fine and specialty chemicals is an ongoing challenge for all manufacturers. Traditional batch processing techniques have been proven over decades of use, but may have efficiency, quality, and safety shortcomings that could be particularly troublesome in specialty chemical production. Chemical engineers have long recognised that continuous flow processing is an efficient and cost-effective alternative to batch processing. Until recently, continuous processing mainly worked in laboratories that needed to produce small volumes of chemicals for testing and product development and not for mass production.
Flow chemistry is an emerging technology in the industry and has been gaining the attention of many players in the market due to the advantages offered by the technology over traditional batch production, such as bulk production and cost-effectiveness. Companies are keen to adopt strategies in order to tap a higher market share. India is a prominent and rapidly growing presence in the global market. It is the largest provider of generic medicines globally, occupying a 20 per cent share in global supply by volume. India ranks third worldwide for production by volume and 14th by value. India is the only country with the largest number of US-FDA compliant Pharma plants (more than 262 including APIs) outside of the US. India has more than 2000 WHO-GMP approved pharma plants and 253 European Directorate of Quality Medicines (EDQM) approved plants.
The manufacture of drugs in India, many life-saving, is dependent on sourcing raw material or active pharma ingredients (APIs) from China. India imports 70 per cent of its APIs and intermediaries from China. The government, in August 2020, had approved the production linked incentive (PLI) Scheme for the promotion of domestic manufacturing of critical key starting materials (KSMs), drug intermediates, active pharma ingredients (APIs) in India. Through this scheme, the government wants to attain self-reliance and reduce import dependence. This proposed scheme will give a thrust to the pharma industry in the country, especially in complex formulations, and will help the sector regain dominance.
As a result of this scheme, pharma, fine and specialty chemicals manufacturers have the opportunity to invest in developing and expanding th...
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