The Parenteral Drug Association (PDA) has launched its new Manufacturing Science Program: Enabling Pharmaceutical Manufacturing’s Future.

The new program is designed to highlight the ongoing focus PDA has on pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical manufacturing; strengthen and build practical solutions by filling known gaps in current manufacturing science as well as gaps that will become apparent based on ongoing developments and analyses; identify and encourage use of new manufacturing technology and methods; and provide portfolio analysis and management of these activities across PDA.

“PDA is based in science with a long tradition of providing the science needed to advance our industry and benefit the public health,” said PDA president Richard Johnson. “While we have always been active in manufacturing science, we want to focus more attention on our contributions. The upcoming 2015 PDA Annual Meeting has an entire track dedicated to improving manufacturing performance, in line with this Manufacturing Science Program.”

A steering committee will oversee the Manufacturing Science Program. It will consist of a representative of PDA’s volunteer board of directors, up to five other selected volunteers, and members of PDA’s professional staff.

The deliverables for the program are: Catalogue of all manufacturing-related PDA activities; heightened internal and external awareness of these activities; identification/prioritization gaps where additional activities are needed; recommendations to the PDA board of directors, advisory boards, and staff for new projects based on gap/needs assessment; steering committee oversight of projects to identify slow moving projects, projects requiring additional attention, and projects that may no longer be needed or have a low priority; and periodical reports on the progress to the board of directors and PDA president. 

The three main tracks of the 2015 Annual Meeting are: Improving Manufacturing Performance; Changing Regulatory Landscape; and Technology, Advances and Expectations.

Experts will speak on manufacturing human error prevention, lean six sigma, process validation, manufacturing control strategies, quality metrics, track and trace, supply chain, drug shortage and global regulatory submission planning along with many other important topics. The conference will also include plenary talks on new and novel technologies, the future of manufacturing, cell therapy, the cost of poor quality, changing financial drivers, and more.

For more information visit www.pdaannualmeeting.org.