DECEMBER 20218 MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY INSIGHTSNick Thomson joined Pfizer in 1997 as a process chemist in Sandwich, UK. Nick spent his early Pfizer career in the evolving process chemistry departments in Sandwich (UK), Sittingbourne (UK) and Holland, Michigan (USA). From 2005 to 2010, Nick led the Sandwich Research Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) department, with accountability for delivery of API technology from lead development to proof of concept. In 2011, Nick joined the Pfizer Chemical Research and Development department in Groton, Connecticut (USA), with accountability for the Quality by Design development and submission of late stage candidates. In 2014, Nick became head of the Technology API line for Pfizer Chemical Research and Development, and has held accountability for Technology Strategy, High Throughput Screening, Biocatalysis, Pressure Labs, Computational Chemistry, and Flexible API Supply Technologies. Nick has been active in cross pharmaceutical precompetitive collaboration, as Chair of the IQ API Leadership Team and a board member of the Enabling Technologies Consortium.At Pfizer we are excited to demonstrate our new modular framework for small molecule continuous development and manufacturing. We call it Flexible API Supply Technologies (FAST). We just received our first prototype modules at the Groton site, on a cold February day. The modules are designed to be reconfigurable across a range of products and will be standardized across our clinical and commercial manufacturing facilities through what we describe as module design replication. Over the coming months we will be qualifying our equipment and applying it to GMP clinical manufacture with integrated unit operations. One project will demonstrate our ability to open up new chemical space and deliver through the most efficient route. A second project will demonstrate the ability to reduce manufacturing cycle time through integration of unit operations, with grand challenge of achieving a 50 percent reduction through the product lifecycle. As we reflect back on our progress and the hard work over the past eighteen months to design and build our prototype technologies, three key challenges had to be overcome. Three c's, namely capital, culture and complexity. We had to strive to enable all three to align the organization across research and development and commercial manufacturing. Collaboration and alignment has been critical. As a member of our research and development group, I am extremely happy to see the partnership with our commercial colleagues from individual scientists through to senior leaders. We are better together. IN MY OPINIONBy Nick Thomson, Senior Director, Chemical Research and Development, Pfizer IncThree C's to Enable Continuous Development and Manufacturing for Small Molecule Active Pharmaceutical IngredientNick Thomson
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