Britest joins world leading continuous processing consortium

Britest Limited has strengthened its capacity to innovate in relation to understanding the batch to continuous manufacturing transition and the role of crystallisation processes in particle design by becoming a Tier 2 member of CMAC (Continuous Manufacturing and Crystallisation).

Britest Technical Director Mark Talford said:

“Britest has worked hard over the years to develop our reputation as a leading exponent of whole process design for the process industries, and it is gratifying when this blossoms into fresh opportunities to innovate in collaboration with key partners such as CMAC.”

Britest’s Innovation Programme currently includes the development of understanding-based approaches to help high value chemical and pharma manufacturers successfully manage the macro-trend in moving from batch to continuous manufacturing and to design in properties of functional particles when developing crystallisation processes. These activities will now benefit from participation in and access to generic outputs from CMAC’s research programme, supporting the development of new methodological approaches to continuous process design for controlled manufacture of particles, which will ultimately help industry take advantage of the benefits of continuous manufacturing and crystallisation.

Taking collaborative links to the next level

CMAC is a world class national centre in advanced pharmaceutical manufacturing accelerating the adoption of continuous manufacturing for the production of high-value chemical products to higher quality, at lower cost and more sustainably. Led by the University of Strathclyde, CMAC’s research is supported by The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) with teams working across seven UK Universities. Strong academic and industrial partnerships are the foundation of CMAC with support from Tier 1 industry partners - GSK, AstraZeneca, Novartis, Bayer, Lilly, and Takeda - and a broad range of technology companies.

Craig Johnston, CMAC’s Industrial Director, commented:

“We are pleased to welcome Britest as a new tier 2 industry partner, joining our world leading consortium of industry users, technology providers and research excellence. This alliance takes our already strong collaborative links with Britest to the next level. We look forward to Britest-trained CMAC researchers being able to apply Britest Tools to accelerate development, and optimise the design and operation of pharmaceutical manufacturing processes for our end users, and to contributing to shaping the Britest Innovation Programme in relevant areas.”

Established in 2011, CMAC now has 130 staff across its network of seven leading universities. It conducts translational research and skills development in continuous manufacturing with particle focus. EPSRC supports research as a National Centre. CMAC also has significant translational activity including two large Advanced Manufacturing Supply Chain Initiative  (AMSCI) projects, REMEDIES and ADDoPT, in both of which Britest Limited are also partners. In 2015 CMAC opened its £34m National Facility in the Technology Innovation Centre at the University of Strathclyde (right) which won an ISPE 2016 Facility of the Year Award.

In addition to its six Tier 1 partners, CMAC has seventeen Tier 2 partners of which Britest is the newest addition. The others are Siemens, Bayer Technology Services, PwC, Mettler Toledo, Perceptive Engineering, PSE, Booth Welsh, Cambridge Reactor Design, Clairet Scientific Ltd., NiTech, Technobis, Alconbury Weston Ltd., AM Technology, EDEM solutions, Sirius Analytical and Buchi.