Publications and Presentations on Moisture in Closures

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The following is a list of publications written by Thomas A. Jennings on the moisture of elasomer closures used in the lyophilization process.

Assessment of Risk Factors of the Container-Closure System for PAT Guidelines
This paper is based on a presentation given at the India Chapter Workshop of the ISL-FD Held in Bangalore, India during November 19 and 20, 2005. The document is in a .pdf format and will open up in Adobe Acrobat, if installed.

Out in the Cold - A reprint of a paper that appeared in the Autumn 2006 issue of PMPS.

While the PAT Guidelines are indeed revolutionary and welcome to those manufacturing pharmaceuticals, nonetheless, PAT really has its foundation in the concept of Six Sigma that has been widely used with great success in the electronics industry for many years. The term sigma refers to standard deviation which is how far a measured value varies from the mean or the desired value. The underlying philosophy of Six Sigma is that the manufacturing process is so well controlled that the number of defects would only amount to 3.4 parts per million (ppm). However if one uses a three sigma approach to the production then the output would be 99.73% and that would translate into defects or failures of the order of 2,700 ppm. Once a pharmaceutical company demonstrates its manufacturing process has achieved the six sigma goal then real time release of manufactured pharmaceutical products will no longer be hypothetical but become a reality. Read more in OUT in the Cold. The document is in a .pdf format and will open up in Adobe Acrobat, if installed.

Managing the Risk of Residual Moisture on Lyophilized Products from Elastomer Closures.
Abstract: This paper (submitted for publication) examines means for managing the risk that the moisture from elastomer closures may have in producing poor lyophilized products. Assessment of the risk will be based on the frequency distribution of the capacitance of the closures. The importance that the sample size will have on confidence interval and its effect on managing the risk will be examined. Other key factors that must be taken into account are (a), post lyophilization treatment of the closures and (b), mass of the lyophilized cake. Sound management of the risk of a poor lyophilized product from the residual moisture of closures requires a reliable data base. The document is in a .pdf format and will open up in Adobe Acrobat, if installed.

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