Hovione Holding AG

Continuous Flow

Continuous Flow

Expand the established chemistry space with Continuous Flow to deliver robust and sustainable processes.

Continuous manufacturing is revolutionizing the way medicines are produced. Hovione has embraced this change in drug product and drug substance.

Why use Continuous Flow

Continuous flow chemistry is a supplement technology to traditional batch operation. It is characterized by the miniaturization of manufacturing, where the chemistry takes place in a smaller and more controlled space. The key features of continuous flow are:

• lower reaction hold-up volume – moderates safety concerns of the process;
• improved mass transfer – wide range of mixing geometries can provide optimal mixing for fast chemistries or heterogeneous mixtures;
• improved heat transfer – heating and cooling are faster and more efficient in smaller volumes, minimizing temperature gradients across the reaction mixture;
• state of control continuous operation – product is collected when all parameters are in target range and segregated in real time when parameters fall out-of-range, not compromising the full batch;

Processes can be intensified to:

• reduce impurities – wider range of operating conditions can be explored to optimize product yield and reduce impurities (e.g., high temperature and pressure)

• improved process efficiency – reduce solvent usage or energy requirements to heat or cool;
• enable chemistries that are not efficient in large scale batch manufacturing (e.g., cryogenic chemistry, photochemistry);
• enable chemistries that are simply dangerous to perform in batch mode (e.g., highly energetic reagents and intermediates).

Hovione has been applying continuous flow technology to tackle known safety and efficiency concerns in various projects.