Faster Analysis Times for Pharma Raw Materials

Cobalt Light Systems is proud to announce RapID, a pioneering instrument for the identification of raw materials through the side of the unopened packaging. The pharmaceutical industry spends significant time and resource on verifying the identity of raw materials before they enter the manufacturing process. Accurate QC of these materials is essential and can be very time consuming, expensive and resource intensive. RapID offers significant cost savings because most raw materials can now be accurately identified without even opening the packaging.

Cobalt has successfully developed a patented technique known as Spatially Offset Raman Spectroscopy (SORS) which is at the heart of the RapID system. A key advantage of SORS is that it can measure a highly-specific Raman spectrum of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API’s) and excipients through unopened sacks, bottles, coloured glass and opaque plastic containers. RapID supersedes the entire notion of opening bags or bottles of raw material to take a sample which is then sent to the QC lab for testing. With RapID the process of verifying the material and getting it into manufacturing is faster, more cost effective and can be done as soon as the goods hit the loading bay. Operation is by non-scientific personnel with a simple, hand-held ‘point and shoot’ measurement tool.

100% testing of raw materials is a regulatory requirement for companies selling products in Europe and is likely to be mandatory in other parts of the world soon. These changes put ever greater demands on manufacturers to find ways of improving efficiencies throughout the value chain. Thanks to SORS, RapID offers a unique set of features developed specifically for the validation of pharmaceutical raw materials, while also providing a surprisingly fast return on investment.