fdcs

The importance of being small: miniaturisation of freeze drying equipment

Developmental activities for freeze-dried products are dictated by the limited availability and high cost of newly developed active compounds, and by Quality-by-Design requirements. Laboratory-scale freeze dryers used for formulation and process development show an excessive variety of designs and instrumentation concepts, making scale-up activities a challenge. The development of miniaturised equipment may provide enormous benefits in terms of development times and costs.