Engineering First Principles: Applications to Pharmaceutical Manufacturing

Within the pharmaceutical industry, creating a robust Operational Control Strategy (OCS) is a key step to accomplishing the goals of Quality by Design (QbD). Along the way to developing this robust Operational Control Strategy many problems will be encountered that need to be solved. The use of a First Principles based approach provides value because it improves the effectiveness and efficiency of our problem solving, thereby leading to solutions that are more likely to work without unintended consequences and were created in a faster and more cost effective manner. Based on the author’s experience, a clear definition of what First Principles are will be given (and what they are not!). Areas of opportunity where the application of First Principles is likely to be successful will be described. An outline of a high-level process for implementing a First Principles based approach will be presented. Finally an example of the application of First Principles in the pharmaceutical industry will be briefly described.