The Indian Pharmaceutical association, Maharashtra State Branch recently organised a seminar on 'tablet technology' in Mumbai.

About 113 professionals including manufacturing chemists, R&D and quality experts and engineers attended the seminar. Naresh Singhania of Singhania group dwelt upon the intricacies of punches and dies used for compression and elaborated on selection of tools, design parameters, embossing aspects, maintenance schedule for care and handling of the tools. A brief on the 'trouble shooting interactive software for tablet manufacture' involving tooling and process parameters were also presented at the seminar.

Dev Bakshi of Tapasya Engineering Works Ltd. presented a paper on granulation technology. Sasidharan of Teknopak presented an overview of the Air Handling Unit and 'clean air'. He elaborated on various air standards recommended in core areas by various regulatory bodies and explained the concept of pressure gradient. Ashish Parekh of Colorcon Asia Pvt. Ltd. elaborated on tablet coating process and described the travails faced by any coating pharmacist on shop floor. Milan Banu gave an overview of trouble shooting in shop floor.

Vote of thanks was proposed by Dr. Hemant Mondkar, Joint Secretary, IPA and Ram Banasre, President, IPA-MSB welcomed the gathering.