Engineering Students Explore Drug Development ProcessWith Bristol-Myers Squibb Scientists
Engineering Students Explore Drug Development ProcessWith Bristol-Myers Squibb Scientists
December 22, 2005
As Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical Research Institute scientists and engineers work to develop a new drug to combat cancer, Rowan University engineering professors and students are by their sides.
Funded by a two-year $26,813 grant awarded in October by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (Region 2), a Rowan Chemical Engineering team is partnering with a group from the Bristol-Myers Squibb facility in New Brunswick, N.J., on a project to use green engineering design in pharmaceutical development.
Green engineering incorporates the development of products and implementation of processes and systems that meet technical and cost objectives while protecting human health and welfare and the environment.
?We?re exploring the unique characteristics in the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry that present challenges from an environmental perspective,? said Dr. Stewart Slater, a Chemical Engineering professor who is one of the supervisors of the Rowan junior-senior clinic project. ?We are looking at an industry sector with unique characteristics that make it a good candidate for process engineering innovations that will in the future be more efficient and more sustainable.?
The Rowan team could have based its work on existing drugs or literature about the field, but instead Bristol-Myers Squibb invited the team to follow and evaluate the process of a drug that the pharmaceutical company is developing. The Rowan group is researching how improvements can be made in drug development, including developing measurement tools to evaluate if process improvements Bristol-Myers Squibb has made are effective and efficient from a green engineering standpoint.
?Bristol-Myers Squibb has a long commitment to developing manufacturing processes that are sustainable and environmentally sound,? said Bristol-Myers Squibb?s Dr. San Kiang, director, Chemical Process Engineering, Process Research & Development, who initiated the partnership with Rowan, adding that the company was a winner of the 2004 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award. ?This program with Rowan allows Bristol-Myers Squibb to share its expertise in Green Chemistry in the hope that it will have a lasting impact on these future scientists.?
Professors and students, who are working at Rowan with the Bristol-Myers Squibb employees, also are looking at developing a computer-based solvent selection table that will enable the choice of more environmentally benign chemicals and help measure the overall ?greenness? of the manufacturing operation.
?To make our work more real-world, Bristol-Myers Squibb said we could be involved in a current project. We?re actually meeting and working with the real team that?s developing this drug, which is in Phase II clinical trials and being made on a pilot scale,? Slater said. The new cancer drug has potential for high-volume usage and currently is being made at the pilot plant in New Brunswick.
In addition to Slater, the Rowan team includes Drs. Mariano Savelski and Robert Hesketh, graduate students Daniel Fichana (Delran, NJ) and Erin Frey (New Ringgold, PA) and undergraduates Nick DeSantis (Blackwood, NJ), Thoran Farnsworth (Mays Landing, NJ) and Scott Barnes (Washington Township, NJ).
Bristol-Myers Squibb?s Kiang, who initiated the partnership with Rowan, has served on Rowan?s Chemical Engineering Industrial Advisory Board since 2000 and was responsible for a gift of a pharmaceutical-grade climbing film evaporator system to the department in 1998. The cancer drug development team of Drs. Lori Spangler and Thomas LaPorte, both senior research investigators in Process Research & Development, is working directly with the students on the project. Dr. Stephan Taylor, director, Learning & Information Solutions, Process Research & Development, is reviewing the student progress from a green chemistry perspective.
Funded by a two-year $26,813 grant awarded in October by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (Region 2), a Rowan Chemical Engineering team is partnering with a group from the Bristol-Myers Squibb facility in New Brunswick, N.J., on a project to use green engineering design in pharmaceutical development.
Green engineering incorporates the development of products and implementation of processes and systems that meet technical and cost objectives while protecting human health and welfare and the environment.
?We?re exploring the unique characteristics in the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry that present challenges from an environmental perspective,? said Dr. Stewart Slater, a Chemical Engineering professor who is one of the supervisors of the Rowan junior-senior clinic project. ?We are looking at an industry sector with unique characteristics that make it a good candidate for process engineering innovations that will in the future be more efficient and more sustainable.?
The Rowan team could have based its work on existing drugs or literature about the field, but instead Bristol-Myers Squibb invited the team to follow and evaluate the process of a drug that the pharmaceutical company is developing. The Rowan group is researching how improvements can be made in drug development, including developing measurement tools to evaluate if process improvements Bristol-Myers Squibb has made are effective and efficient from a green engineering standpoint.
?Bristol-Myers Squibb has a long commitment to developing manufacturing processes that are sustainable and environmentally sound,? said Bristol-Myers Squibb?s Dr. San Kiang, director, Chemical Process Engineering, Process Research & Development, who initiated the partnership with Rowan, adding that the company was a winner of the 2004 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award. ?This program with Rowan allows Bristol-Myers Squibb to share its expertise in Green Chemistry in the hope that it will have a lasting impact on these future scientists.?
Professors and students, who are working at Rowan with the Bristol-Myers Squibb employees, also are looking at developing a computer-based solvent selection table that will enable the choice of more environmentally benign chemicals and help measure the overall ?greenness? of the manufacturing operation.
?To make our work more real-world, Bristol-Myers Squibb said we could be involved in a current project. We?re actually meeting and working with the real team that?s developing this drug, which is in Phase II clinical trials and being made on a pilot scale,? Slater said. The new cancer drug has potential for high-volume usage and currently is being made at the pilot plant in New Brunswick.
In addition to Slater, the Rowan team includes Drs. Mariano Savelski and Robert Hesketh, graduate students Daniel Fichana (Delran, NJ) and Erin Frey (New Ringgold, PA) and undergraduates Nick DeSantis (Blackwood, NJ), Thoran Farnsworth (Mays Landing, NJ) and Scott Barnes (Washington Township, NJ).
Bristol-Myers Squibb?s Kiang, who initiated the partnership with Rowan, has served on Rowan?s Chemical Engineering Industrial Advisory Board since 2000 and was responsible for a gift of a pharmaceutical-grade climbing film evaporator system to the department in 1998. The cancer drug development team of Drs. Lori Spangler and Thomas LaPorte, both senior research investigators in Process Research & Development, is working directly with the students on the project. Dr. Stephan Taylor, director, Learning & Information Solutions, Process Research & Development, is reviewing the student progress from a green chemistry perspective.