CHIMIA (Sep 2023)

How Technical Innovations May Help to Prevent Drug Shortages in Switzerland

  • Daniel Gygax,
  • Kaspar Eigenmann,
  • Christian Suter,
  • Marianne Hürzeler,
  • Ahmed Mahmoud,
  • Johannes Mosbacher,
  • Norbert Pöllinger

DOI
https://doi.org/10.2533/chimia.2023.616
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 77, no. 9

Abstract

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In this work, we investigated the technical feasibility of 'on-demand' production of selected drugs to cover their demand for a time window of 90 days. We focused on two sub-processes 'automated chemical synthesis' and 'formulation in micropellets' to enable personalized dosing. The production of drugs 'on-demand' is challenging, important, but also attractive. Switzerland could thus gain access to an additional instrument for increasing resilience for supply-critical drugs. The biggest challenge in the case study presented here is the scalability of automated chemical synthesis and the application range of micropellet formulations.

Keywords