Pharmacy on Demand Feasibility Assessment
Abstract
DARPA's DSO has expressed interest in technologies to engineer field medical therapies at the point of care, such as production of multiple drugs from a single precursor and to drastically reduce the logistics burden of medical treatment in the field. Pharmacy on Demand (POD) is proposed as a fieldable system for synthesizing Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) with the intent of significantly reducing the weight and volume of drug products deployed to theatre. To assess the initial feasibility of POD, synthetic routes to three APIs, ibuprofen, atropine and ciprofloxacin, have been devised. The efficiency of synthesis of two, ibuprofen and atropine, has been determined experimentally. The weight of materials used in these syntheses has been compared to the weights of the same APIs in normal dosage form with packaging in order to quantify potential reduction of logistics burden. At the current state of development these new synthetic routes are not efficient enough to offset the weight of excipients and packaging now used to deploy these drugs. Therefore the initial acceptable metrics have not been achieved. Further analysis of wastes resulting from the new synthetic routes is recommended. Beneficial reuse of waste may improve the effective value of the new synthetic routes.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 19, 2008
- Accession Number
- ADA500718
Entities
People
- Russell L. Newton
- Steven Broadwater