Fredericton Company Partners with Global Pharmaceutical Provider
FREDERICTON– Fredericton-based Smart Skin Technologies has announced a new partnership with the Parenteral Drug Association (PDA). The partnership will merge Smart Skin’s Quantifeel solutions line monitoring system with PDA’s aseptic processing and visual inspection training.
Kumaran Thillainadarajah, founder and chief technology officer of Smart Skin, said his company’s Quantifeel system has quickly made its way into the pharmaceutical space over the last few years.
“We’ve been adopted by 17 of the 20 largest [pharmaceutical] companies, but, in many respects, it still feels like we’re scratching the surface of this industry,” said Thillainadarajah.
The partnership means Smart Skin is giving PDA access to Quantifeel, which leading pharmaceutical companies are currently using, said Thillainadarajah. By doing this, generations of operators will understand how to use this technology to improve productivity, safety, and quality within their packaging lines.
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Mihaela Simianu, Smart Skin’s scientific advisor and chair of the scientific advisory panel, has witnessed the pharmaceutical industry’s adoption of the technology since 2018.
“For me, it’s outstanding how quickly the industry can embrace it, and for the right reason because it is speaking to the science and to the need that industry has in a very unique way,” said Simianu.
The Quantifeel solutions system is a technology that helps customers understand where they are experiencing issues in their packaging lines and allows them to troubleshoot any errors.
The technology works by creating a replica of a customer’s container. Thillainadarajah used the example of a Perrier packaging line, but in the pharmaceutical industry they are working with containers much smaller, like medicine vials, that can be as small as a pinky finger.
As for the PDA, parenteral drugs are drugs that are not delivered orally, said Simianu. They can be administered through needles or other means.
“They get into our bodies in a way that those medications need to be delivered in different parts of our body but it’s associated with the type of medication,” said Simianu. “Making parenteral drugs, it is probably the most complex process because those injectables need to be pretty sophisticated and need to protect the patients.”
Parenteral drugs also need to be sterile at all times, meaning their delivery containers need to be sterile and protected from every contaminant. Ensuring this happens requires precise technology.
The PDA is an association of volunteers that connects people in the pharmaceutical industry with science. The pharmaceutical industry is highly regulated in the United States and Canada, so Simianu said in order to protect the patient and ensure their drugs are efficient and effective, these workers have to be trained properly.
“The people in the industry are actually executing those processes. PDA has been instrumental in educating the workforce in connecting the industry with the regulators and being very specific of how the products are actually made,” said Simianu.
PDA has a global presence and teaches the best practices that exist in the pharmaceutical industry.
Among the work the PDA does, Simianu said it has the capacity to train the workforce in the industry. The people who need to become experts in the parenteral drug process can take courses through the PDA. These courses offer training and hands-on experience and can also take specific training courses associated with the skill sets they need to build.
The PDA has several training centres and the largest is located at its headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland.
“This partnership is to include this technology in the training that is now going to be provided to everyone that is going to take those Parenteral Drug Association courses associated with the process,” said Simianu.
The technology will offer a better understanding of how to execute a certain operation and make it become a best practice.
“It’s a breakthrough to bring this technology as part of a normal way or the desired way to execute the parenteral process, so it’s very significant. It’s going to be included in the education and in the best practices of the parenteral practices,” said Simianu.
Simianu said one of the first biggest problems of the COVID-19 vaccine was glass breakage, meaning every contaminated vial was a vaccine that could no longer be used. The ultimate goal of aseptic processing is to ensure every unit of medicine is in a container that has the highest quality possible, with no cracks or contaminations.
Thillainadarajah said Smart Skin’s partnership with PDA is a crucial step in continuing the journey they are already on. Even though they have been adopted by 17 of the 20 largest pharmaceutical companies, there are still many companies and customers that are not familiar with SmartSkin and the technologies they offer.
Simianu said there are many injectable products in the world that are not made by large pharmaceutical companies. A lot of these are contract manufacturing, made by small manufacturers. This partnership will allow SmartSkin to have a larger reach.
There is no set timeline for this partnership as the technology will be used in training courses by the PDA for the foreseeable future.
“This is a very mutually beneficial relationship,” said Thillainadarajah.
Jessica Saulnier is an intern with Huddle. Send her feedback or tips: [email protected]