The entire pharmaceutical sector is in an urgent need of both innovative technological solutions and fundamental scientific work, enabling the production of highly engineered drug products. Commercial-scale manufacturing of complex drug delivery systems (DDSs) using the existing technologies is challenging. This review covers important elements of manufacturing sciences, beginning with risk management strategies and design of experiments (DoE) techniques. Experimental techniques should, where possible, be supported by computational approaches. With that regard, state-of-art mechanistic process modeling techniques are described in detail. Implementation of materials science tools paves the way to molecular-based processing of future DDSs. A snapshot of some of the existing tools is presented. Additionally, general engineering principles are discussed covering process measurement and process control solutions. Last part of the review addresses future manufacturing solutions, covering continuous processing and, specifically, hot-melt processing and printing-based technologies. Finally, challenges related to implementing these technologies as a part of future health care systems are discussed.

Almost 100 years after the discovery of the Raman scattering phenomenon, related analytical techniques have emerged as important tools in biomedical sciences. Raman spectroscopy and microscopy are frontier, non-invasive analytical techniques amenable for diverse biomedical areas, ranging from molecular-based drug discovery, design of innovative drug delivery systems and quality control of finished products. This review presents concise accounts of various conventional and emerging Raman instrumentations including associated hyphenated tools of pharmaceutical interest. Moreover, relevant application cases of Raman spectroscopy in early and late phase pharmaceutical development, process analysis and micro-structural analysis of drug delivery systems are introduced. Finally, potential areas of future advancement and application of Raman spectroscopic techniques are discussed.

Raman spectroscopy is experiencing a surge in interest in solid-state pharmaceutical applications. It is rapid, non-destructive, no sample preparation is required and measurements can be made in aqueous environments. It can be used for not only qualitative, but also quantitative, analysis. In this paper, the use of Raman spectroscopy for quantitative analysis of pharmaceutical solids is reviewed. The technique has been used for chemical and physical form analysis. Physical form analysis has involved quantification of polymorphism, hydrates, the amorphous form and, recently, protein conformation. Initially, simple powder systems were quantified, although this has since extended to complex pharmaceutical formulations, including tablets, capsules, microspheres and suspensions. Formulations have also been analysed through packaging. The characteristics of the technique make it ideal for process monitoring and it has been used to quantify changes in-situ during processes such as wet granulation and batch crystallisation. The theoretical basis of quantitative Raman spectroscopy, common data analysis approaches, including multivariate analysis, and sources of error in quantitative analysis are also discussed.