Iterative Process and Product Scale-up for Pharma Products
Josef Chmelar is a chemical engineer working at Contipro, Czech Republic, since 2015. He gave a plenary lecture on biopolymer process and product scale-up for pharma product applications at the CHISA 2026 chemical engineering conference Prague, 27th of August 2026.
The scale-up method of Contipro is based on an iterative process scale-up method in which the starting point is the commercial scale process design, then the pilot plant is designed as a down-scaled version with all unit operations the same as the commercial scale plant. The learning points from the pilot plant test are then used the improve the commercial scale plant design.
Josef also described in detail how for a new hyaluronan polymeric film the product scale-up was executed. First it was researched both on chemistry and on product film formation. Then it was followed up by in vivo studies for the pharma product application and for providing information for the regulating bodies.
The fasted product and process scale-up by Contipro from idea to commercial scale production was 5 years. The Contipro company started in 1990. It now has 70 employees. From the lecture given by Josef it is clear that chemical engineering methods play an important part in the success of this company.
I attended this CHISA conference. The conference was a great success. It had 602 participants from 62 countries. Edwin Zondervan, professor at Twente University showed in his plenary lecture that the last 5 years the number of chemical engineering students worldwide steadily grew by in total 35 %. Overall it is clear that chemical engineering field is growing qualitatively and quantitatively.