Chestnuts roasting on an open fire,
Jack Frost nipping at your nose,
Yuletide carols being sung by a choir
And folks dressed up like Eskimos…

Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year. However, having braved the cold to sing carols and eat roasted chestnuts, my favorite way to wind down, and increase the calorie count for the day, is to reach for the Irish cream liqueur when I get home. And as I snuggle up on the sofa like an oversized cat, supping my liqueur while warming myself in the glow …

Over the past week I’ve had a lot of fun working with Malvern’s team in China to deliver a series of seminars designed to help researchers engaged in pharmaceutical product development. These meetings focused on how Malvern’s material characterization systems can help those developing and manufacturing oral solid dose formulations. During the seminar series, we had the privilege of meeting with well over 200 customers, providing us with the chance to learn about the challenges they are facing in product development, as they seek to select APIs and excipients which …

Component-specific Particle Size
Follow that particle!

I’ve always thought it would be great to be the innocent driver in a movie chase scene who has to respond to the hero’s demand to ‘Follow that car’ as they try to keep tabs on the villain. I always imaged that this would unlock the silent racing driver within me, giving me the excuse to forget about speed limits and drive at the limits of my car’s performance. I’d also get the chance to practice my handbrake turns!
Although I have never been engaged in a …

In the UK we are about to celebrate Easter, where we get the chance to spend a few days relaxing with family and friends and enjoying the start of spring. It is traditional at this time of year to give away chocolate Easter eggs, as a symbol of new life.
So, for me, the hunt is on for the perfect Easter egg for my family. As I do this, the questions I find myself asking are:

What size is it?
What shape is it?
What does it contain?

Interestingly these are precisely the same questions …

Particle size of coffee and Premium coffee!
How the particle size of coffee can affect the taste and strength of coffee
As a Malvern product manager, I am privileged to get the chance to travel to different locations around the world in order to meet Malvern’s users and engage with our sales teams. As a result, I get to stay in a lot of hotels.
Now, as with other travellers, I have developed my own list of requirements for assessing whether a given hotel is worth visiting again. I don’t know what you …

Regular readers of this blog will know that one of the most important pieces of advice we provide with respect to setting product specifications or developing new methods is that one number is never enough. For example, a single measurement is always perfect and tells you nothing about how a method is performing – it is only by making repeat measurements that the method’s performance can be ascertained. And when it comes to setting specifications, selecting a single number from a Malvern analysis report and using it as a quality …

At school, I never really got the hang of biology classes, and instead preferred topics like chemistry and physics. However, one experiment I do remember from my short engagement with things biological was observing amoeba. These creatures provided an excellent introduction in understanding the processes of cell division. They also helped me understand something about how an ecosystem works, with even something as a simple as a single-celled organism having an important part to play in the food chain.
Well, those days of amoeba watching came back to me recently, as …

We’re headed to the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) Annual Meeting & Exposition this week for what promises to be a really interesting event in (hopefully) sunny San Diego.  You can find us at booth 330, where we’ll have a whole load of new & innovative tech to help you with pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical discovery, development & manufacture.
Malvern’s portfolio of instruments for pharmaceutical scientists has expanded significantly in the last year. The acquisition of MicroCal’s microcalorimetry range has extended our capabilities to include drug discovery applications for both small and …

When I was young, I liked to take things apart to see how they worked. From my dad’s scientific calculators through to my own Scalextric cars and model steam trains, my curiosity always got the better of me as I grappled screwdrivers, pliers and sometimes claw hammers in order to try and find out what was inside. Putting each item back together was never easy though, and often left me with a significant number of ‘spare parts’. Perhaps this experience is why I ended up following a career as a …

The combination of an aging global population and increased urban pollution levels has led to a significant increase in the prevalence of asthma. It has been estimated that 300 million people suffer from the conditional globally, and that poor disease control causes approximately 250,000 deaths per year. Given the impact the disease has, especially within poorer communities, the recent message from the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) on World Asthma Day suggested that it was ‘Time to control asthma’.
One of the barriers to asthma control identified by GINA is the …

It has long been understood that adding flexibility to structures such as buildings and bridges adds stability during very high winds or even earthquakes. Rigid buildings tend to fail, as their resistance to movement leads to a buildup of stress which can only be released through damage to the structure. In comparison, adding flexibility to a building can help dissipate any destructive energy. Of course, there needs to be a balance between design for flexibility and rigidity, as the famous Tacoma Narrows bridge failure shows.

So, does the same apply to …

One of the most important aspects of particle size analysis is control of how materials are sampled and dispersed prior to a measurement being carried out. This must be done in a way that is appropriate for the sample while also providing the measurement reproducibility required to allow any batch-to-batch differences to be detected.
Given the importance of method control, Malvern is very pleased to be sponsoring one of Pharmaceutical Manufacturing’s ‘Fundamentals Series’ of online presentations. ‘The Importance of Particle Size Analysis in the Pharmaceutical Industry’ is presented by William Kopesky, …

On the 25th September, I presented a webinar on the new developments for the Mastersizer 3000 particle size analyzer & the new Mastersizer 3000E.
This webinar was very well attended, and can still be viewed on the Malvern website here. However, due to the significant number of attendees, not all questions could be answered ‘live’ – so I thought it might be useful to post answeres to the questions I did not get to during the event. For many issues, expanded details are available on our website, or by contacting me directly!

Question

Answer

The example …

One year has passed since I was involved in the launch of the Mastersizer 3000 system. It is amazing how time flies! Since the launch it has been good to see, first hand, how the system has been accepted by users, and is now providing the particle size analysis data they require to aid product development and provide for quality control.
Of course, it is true that time does not stand still, and what was new 2 years ago is viewed as ‘normal’ now. Given this, the team at Malvern have been responding to …

Blog entry written by Dr. Richard Tweedie, Consultant, In-situ Particle Characterization.
Over the years, Malvern has built a reputation for quality and innovation, identifying evolving technologies and embracing the latest thinking in the development and launch of new products. While this leads us to be confident in our own abilities and those of our teams, we do actively seek opportunities to involve others in the development process to ensure we access leading edge technology and produce the best and most relevant products for our market. In doing so we’ve found that …

Home and dry – improving nasal sprays
Regular users of nasal sprays, such as myself, will be all too aware of some of their more irritating side effects which can include nose bleeds, and a rather unpleasant after taste. These can be caused by some of the excpients used to improve product stability and promote drug absorption.
Well, it turns out that dry nasal sprays could be the answer.
Echoing the growing use of dry powder inhalers (DPIs), interest in dry powder drug delivery via the nose is a hot topic in inhaled drug …

I was delighted to come across a recent article on how a Spraytec was used to demonstrate the performance of a new dry powder inhaled drug delivery system.
Titled; ‘A novel platform for DP inhalation drugs’, the article was published in the November 2011 Issue of Manufacturing Chemist, and is written by the biotechnology company Pulmatrix.  It describes how a novel dry powder delivery platform can overcome the limitations faced by other dry powder technologies in inhalation.
According to this article, “Current technologies for the inhaled delivery of dry powder (DP) have …

This Christmas, I will be travelling back to my homecountyof Cornwall to spend time with my parents. When I arrive, a large proportion of the main living space in their house will be taken up by a huge Christmas tree, under which will be stacked all the presents we’ve bought for each other. Following our traditional Christmas dinner, we’ll start the excited process of unwrapping everything!
Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree!
The origin of the Christmas tree is an interesting one. It is thought to relate back to the medieval mystery plays, …

With Christmas approaching, I’ve recently had the opportunity to watch my children act out the nativity story. The usual characters were there: Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus centre stage with a whole host of angels, shepherds, donkeys and other farm animals in attendance. Of course, the story ends with the appearance of a star, and the arrival of the wise men from The Orient.
Well, this year I’ve had the opportunity to reverse the story. As part of the continued roll out of the Mastersizer 3000 particle size analyzer, I’ve headed out …

Well, what a great way to start a trade show!
I’m currently in the historic city of Nürnberg in Germany, where Malvern is exhibiting at this year’s Powtech/Technopharm event. I’m here with the new Mastersizer 3000 on the Malvern stand. We’re also holding a series of interactive customer workshops along side the show, giving peiople the chance to see the new system and also understand how important particle science is to the life of a Malvern product manager! If you want to find out more, come along to the Malvern stand in Hall 9-306 to grab an …