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Pharmaceutical User Supplier Club
Downloadable Files for members of this USC
Background of application area
Current Status
Within this sector there are many companies that are developing products. These generally revolve around diagnostic, chemical synthesis and sample analysis systems. However, it is fair to say that these companies are still in the development phase and, in general, do not provide off-the-shelf solutions or products. This appears to be made worse by the complexity of such systems and requires what I call Application Specific Microsystem Modules (ASMMs). However, the potential gains of microsystems technology are now starting to be taken up by large instrumentation based companies. By way of example, consider the recent collaboration between Hewlett Packard and Caliper Technologies. Such partnerships will undoubtedly give impetus to the technology.
Future trends
I would forecast (though I do not generally like to do so, since whenever I do, someone goes and does it sooner!) that within the next five years we will start to see real microsystem devices turning up in products. I believe the key areas where we will see this (for USC2) will be in multi-analyte intelligent diagnostic systems and within pharmaceutical R&D. The latter will benefit from integrated systems which will contain elements enabling it to carry out sample processing, synthesis and analysis all within one device. What this does highlight is that much work will be carried out to enable integration of many modules together rather than the traditional development of individual systems - e.g. people spend a lot of time developing micropumps without any real thought of the environments and applications they will be placed in.
Specific activities of the Club
This club brings together persons who have an interest in Microsystems, as applied to the medical, biomedical and pharmaceutical fields. Members include representatives from academia (universities and institutes), instrumentation suppliers (both large and small) and various users of the technology. The latter includes people from the major European pharmaceutical firms, diagnostic firms and medical device manufacturers.
The group comes together approximately every six months, in conjunction with a major conference in the field, to discuss issues such as:
and, of course, to allow formal and informal communication between interested parties.
Product Data Sheets
User Supplier Club 2 has a collection of product data sheets. They are available to be viewed here.
Contact
If you require additional information or would like to be added to the distribution list for future meetings please contact the co-ordinator:
Dr Coulton Legge
Technology Development - Chemistry
GlaxoSmithKline
Third Avenue
Harlow
Essex CM19 5AW
UK
Tel: +44(0)1279 875432
Fax: +44(0)1279 622749
Email:
coulton.h.legge@gsk.com
Meeting Minutes
A list of available minutes can be viewed here
Club membership
Full members: Those who take an active part in the club and participate in the work-groups that will be generated. This will involve members submitting a completed data sheet of devices (suppliers) and requirements (users).
Associate members: Those who have an interest in the club, but do not wish to play an active role or take part in the workgroups. Should an associate member require to move to full membership at a later date, this will be at the discretion of the rest of the full members. Associate members will only receive details of the club in general, but not of the workgroups.
USC 2 is still looking for people who could contribute to roadmap activities in the following areas
The list of current USC 2 members can be viewed here.