Technical
Pharmaceutical Market"Producers of pharmaceuticals, who are under pressure to manufacture products faster and more
cost effectively while still complying with stringent regulations, rely heavily on analytical
instrumentation to ensure product quality and validate conformance to manufacturing standards." [1]
The pharmaceutical industry is in a period of transformation. The newest FDA initiative, called
"Pharmaceutical cGMPs for the 21st Century," has set a course to move U.S. pharmaceutical
manufacturers from being overregulated and slow to adopt new technologies to being world-
class producers. This initiative, in combination with drug industry consolidations resulting from
a lack of pipeline blockbuster drugs and pricing pressures from insurance companies and
government agencies, has created a welcoming environment for innovations that improve
efficiency and lower costs. Process analytics is gaining recognition as a way to replace slow and
expensive lab testing and reduce labor costs.
Mustard Tree’s team has discussed the benefits of Raman technology with over a 1,000 potential
customers in the last two years. The most common requested instrument has been for a real time
continuous process analyzer. "An easy to use process instrument to measure fluidbed drying and
to monitor our blenders [powder] does not exist yet ..." says a leading pharmaceutical company
Operations Manager. "This technology is truly needed and would be well received in the
[pharmaceutical] industry." [2]
Petrochemical RefineriesThe US has approximately 150 refineries in operation, which is a number that is not expanding.
These refineries are often extremely large, effectively being several refineries in one, due to the
difficulty in building out new sites in the US. In addition there may be a number of distribution
locations that could use such instruments, as well as laboratories and facilities that are developing
new fuels such as biofuels. [3]
The petrochemical industry is a commodity business. The improvement in efficiency that process
analytics offer has been a major driver in the industry for years. Producing an easy to use process
spectrometer will allow less skilled workers to apply the technology effectively. Raman's high
temperature insensitivity makes it ideal to monitor process points not yet analyzed by other
devices. Further, given the complexity and size of petrochemical refineries, there are many
monitoring points that could yield benefit in the facility. For instance hydrogenation reaction bed
efficiency monitoring could save the average refinery millions in sub effective product
production.
Chemical Processing PlantsThere are over 14,000 chemical plants in the U.S. and an estimated 130,000 worldwide. [4] These
plants provide many opportunities for process Raman instrumentation. Reaction monitoring,
blend composition, filtration efficiency, intermediate and form identification can easily be done
via noncontact and nondestructive real time Raman testing. Although most of these plants are a
commodity business a number of the US based plants produce specialty chemicals such as those
provided to the pharmaceutical industry. Process improvements and safety concerns are driving
more of these sites to consider nondestructive and instant qualitative and quantitative
measurements confirming their materials.
1 Freedonia Group Report "Focus on Analytical instruments."
2 Conversation in person concerning the needs of the industry in Q4 2008.
3 Instrument Business Outlook, "Industry Forecast", January 2008.
4 Strategic Directions International Inc. market analysis, "Handheld Spectroscopy Market."
