JAN. 2–SOUTHAMPTON, Pa–Environmental Tectonics Corp.’s Sterilizer Division has been awarded a second contract from a “leading pharmaceutical company.”
Under the contract, ETC will supply two cGMP, Sanitary 3A, steam autoclaves/sterilizers with its “one step” stopper sterilization/drying process. According to ETC, this sterilization process significantly reduces production time and costs for the processing of bagged stoppers, caps and line seals used in the production of parenteral drugs.
The process, developed by ETC, permits items to be sterilized and dried in a single operation, without removal from the sterilizer. This confers several significant cost benefits for pharmaceutical user, including:
— Shorter total cycle times of 4-6 hours vs. 10-14 hours, allowing increased throughput of usable product.
— Reduction in manpower by eliminating the need to unload/load from sterilizer to a separate drying oven.
— Reduction in contamination and/or damage of product due to less handling.
— Elimination of a separate drying oven needed with conventional processing. (Savings on capital cost, validation, space, and operating costs associated with a drying oven.)
The sterilizers will be provided with ETC’s standard non-proprietary computer-based control system.