April 2024 News Bulletin

THE DETERMINATION OF NINHYDRIN-POSITIVE SUBSTANCES IN PhEur AMINO ACIDS

Our Projects department has now successfully verified 15 out of the 21 amino acids listed in Free Amino Acid Monographs using our Hitachi high-speed Amino Acid analyser.  This work will continue until all 21 amino acids have been verified and we’ll keep you posted on our progress towards this goal.  Please take a look at our White Paper on this subject and also our website for an updated list of the currently verified materials

Frank Judge has also written an article published by Pharmaceutical Technology titled: A review of changing regulatory and analytical requirements of free amino acid monographs of the European Pharmacopoeia.

To read the article: Click here

MAKING PHARMACEUTICALS 2024

Butterworth will again be exhibiting at the Making Pharmaceutical Exhibition in Coventry at the end of this month.  Frank Judge will be giving a presentation entitled ‘Helium Crisis’ on the first morning.  He will then be on our stand to answer any questions about the presentation and how to move from Helium to Hydrogen as a carrier gas in GC methods.  If you are attending, please come and see us on Stand 315.  If you are not already registered to attend as a visitor: Click here

JPAG MEETING

Mala Patel and John Welch attended and exhibited at the latest JPAG meeting on Considering the Raw Materials.  The most interesting point highlighted was that the Death Rate as a result of contaminated cough syrups with Ethylene Glycol and Diethylene Glycol is now as high as it has ever been.  It was suggested that organised crime might be putting profit above safety, which is very difficult for Regulators and Auditors to deal with.

Butterworth highlighted the issue of contaminated cough syrups with Ethylene Glycol in an article published by Pharmaceutical Technology last June: Contamination of Drug Components and Products with Ethylene Glycol and Diethylene Glycol and in our whitepaper titled The Importance of Excipient Testing.

PROJECTS

One of the biggest frustrations communicated to us by our clients is the competing priorities in their labs regarding scheduling non-routine work, such as method development, verifications, and validations.  When deadlines are looming and you are not making the progress you need, we can ease the pressure.  Our bespoke solutions, underpinned by our 50 years of expertise with dedicated project managers and analysts, can provide you with a cost-effective and hassle-free service.

We have been working hard to control and reduce our Projects costs and are keen to pass these benefits on to our clients, so why not contact our Projects Team to learn more about the benefits of collaborating with Butterworth Labs?  It may not be as expensive as you might think!

LATEST INVESTMENTS

The laboratory has just taken delivery of hydrogen, nitrogen, and zero-air gas generators.  These will assist us in helping our clients move their GC methods from Helium to Hydrogen carrier gas, which our Projects Department would be happy to talk to you about.  The move to gas generators, from bottled gas cylinders, will also help our drive to become a more sustainable laboratory and help us reduce our costs.

In addition, our Projects Department have been leading a change control process for the purchase of a new LC-MS and an order will be placed by the end of this month.

STAFF NEWS

John Gearey is stepping down as Finance Director & Company Secretary after 24 years and Paris Sheppard has been appointed to this role.  John will continue on the Board as a non-executive director. 

Nigel Gradwell, who worked in our Projects department, has retired after 21 years of service at Butterworth in several roles.

We wish John and Nigel all the best in their retirement.

BLOGS

Since the beginning of the year, our staff have been writing interesting blogs about our work.  These include:

• Let’s put the TLC back into TLC
• Recycled fire suppressant specifications – is there a case for revision?
• No more burned fingers and the roots of residual solvent analysis at Butterworth
• The background to Residual Solvent Analysis at Butterworth 

The blog on Fire Suppressants led to the author being asked to attend an ASTM D committee meeting.  This was to provide analytical expertise on a potential new standard due to our long history of analysing these materials.

Please follow us on LinkedIn to receive future blogs that may be of interest, as well as notifications of articles and whitepapers published by Pharmaceutical Technology and Manufacturing Chemist etc.