Within the pharmaceutical industry, analytical instruments are used for specific analysis of drug substances (DS) and / or drug products (DP). Calibration can be explained as a process by which the correct performance of an instrument is ensured. It should not be mixed with the system suitability test (SST), which is performed each time the method is done. The performance of an instrument may vary because of multitude of reasons such as fluctuations in the environment or its ageing components.

If you are working within the pharmaceutical industry or are somehow related to it, you must have come across the terms; Drug Substance, Drug Product, and Excipients. Although simple, many people make obvious mistakes dealing with them. In this short article, we wrote a brief overview about the terms with supporting examples.

In this article, we will write about the life cycle of a drug from discovery to its release with a focus on its development and validation.

Drug discovery and development

Every drug, that is sold in the market starts its journey from being discovered. Researchers spend years to identify the drug substance for a particular target.

I recently had a chance to visit the Analytica 2018, probably the largest International trade fair for innovative laboratory technology, analysis and Biotechnology, held in Munich, Germany. As a fresher to this field, I was about to witness the very best and my curiosity and enthusiasm went beyond words.