How Technical Innovations May Help to Prevent Drug Shortages in Switzerland

Daniel Gygax; Kaspar Eigenmann; Christian Suter; Marianne Hürzeler; Ahmed Mahmoud; Johannes Mosbacher; Norbert Pöllinger

doi:10.2533/chimia.2023.616

How Technical Innovations May Help to Prevent Drug Shortages in Switzerland

Authors

Daniel Gygax Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences, CH-8001 Zürich, Switzerland
Kaspar Eigenmann Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences, CH-8001 Zürich, Switzerland
Christian Suter Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences, CH-8001 Zürich, Switzerland
Marianne Hürzeler School of Life Sciences FHNW, CH-4132 Muttenz, Switzerland
Ahmed Mahmoud Chemspeed Technologies AG, CH-4414 Füllinsdorf, Switzerland
Johannes Mosbacher Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences, CH-8001 Zürich, Switzerland; School of Life Sciences FHNW, CH-4132 Muttenz, Switzerland
Norbert Pöllinger Glatt Pharmaceutical Services, D-79589 Binzen, Germany

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.2533/chimia.2023.616

PMID:

38047837

Keywords:

Automation of chemical synthesis, Drug shortage, Micropellet formulation, On-demand production, Personalized healthcare

Abstract

In this work, we investigated the technical feasibility of 'on-demand' production of selected drugs to cover their demand for a time window of 90 days. We focused on two sub-processes 'automated chemical synthesis' and 'formulation in micropellets' to enable personalized dosing. The production of drugs 'on-demand' is challenging, important, but also attractive. Switzerland could thus gain access to an additional instrument for increasing resilience for supply-critical drugs. The biggest challenge in the case study presented here is the scalability of automated chemical synthesis and the application range of micropellet formulations.