Expert research group to support pharmaceutical sector

A NEW research group has been formed at the University of Limerick to support the pharmaceutical sector which employs thousands.

The newly-launched Solid State Pharmaceutical Cluster (SSPC) plans to further strengthen medical manufacturing industries.

Professor Kieran Hodnett, dean of the faculty of science and engineering at UL, said: “The combined expertise and background knowledge of the cluster enables the development of a research area in Ireland which supports the pharmaceutical industry by developing the expertise, research and capacity to understand, generate, design and optimise processes to manufacture solid state pharmaceuticals to meet the demands of advanced formulation and drug delivery systems.

“Researchers will study, in a fundamental manner, properties of pharmaceutical solids that have a definite impact on performance characteristics — such as random variability of flow characteristics from batch to batch leading to handling failures at the formulation stage,” he said.

The pharmaceutical industry is one of the four largest components of Ireland’s manufacturing output.

Central Statistics Office figures show the sector accounted for 44.7% of national exports in 2004 and employs 24,000 people directly.

More than 50% of the personnel in this industry are third level graduates.

Despite increasing competition from lower cost economies, Ireland remains an attractive location for the manufacture of pharmaceutical and chemical products.

Prof Hodnett said: “The cluster offers the potential to train to PhD level and beyond, a significant number of researchers in the domain of pharmaceutical solids.

“The training will come from the best academic and industrial laboratories in this country and overseas and will provide an exciting mixture of academic and industrial experience as a preparation for a career in this industry. It will address the severe and growing shortage of PhD graduates in the areas of physical chemistry, chemical and mechanical engineering and pharmaceutics.

“Industry sources point to the lack of skilled graduates in all the technical areas dealing with pharmaceutical solids and this shortfall is a definite impediment to the Irish industry in its collective ambition to move back along the value chain within their companies and increase competitiveness,” he concluded.