Arnet Pharmaceutical and IMA Thomas: committed to product quality.

As a modern, efficient, full service private label contract manufacturer, Arnet Pharmaceutical has chosen IMA Thomas CTC continuous coaters to boost and modernised its plants in Davie, Florida.

Introduction

Established in 1972, Arnet Pharmaceutical has researched, manufactured and marketed natural products worldwide. Arnet Pharmaceutical is an internationally recognised contract manufacturer known for its quality and service. Actively, Arnet serves over 70 countries around the world. The Company’s Quality Assurance department works closely with each customer to guarantee compliance and the necessary documentation needed to meet the most stringent standards.Arnet Pharmaceutical is housed in a 130,000 sq. ft. space in Davie Florida with 400 employees.
The facility includes offices, laboratory, manufacturing and warehouse areas and includes separate rooms for production machinery.
Arnet’s extensive line of products includes a complete range of vitamins, minerals, amino acids and herbal supplements, in form of tablets, capsules, powders and chewables. Over the years, Arnet Pharmaceutical has led the nutritional supplement industry in price, quality and innovation, while building lasting and profitable relationships with the private labels.
The Company provide with the highest quality products from the finest ingredients. All formulas are manufactured under the guidelines of United States Pharmacopoeia (U.S.P.), Current Good Manufacturing Practices (c.G.M.P.), Standard Operating Procedures (S.O.P.), FDA Registered Facility and Labeler code for Customers. Arnet’s commitment to quality assures that the customers will be provided with the most effective formulations produced under strict quality control standards.

How does the CTC fit into your business?

As the pharmaceutical industry endeavours to enhance its safety and quality standards, while achieving greater production agility and sustainability, there is clearly a growing interest in Continuous Manufacturing and the potential it offers. Continuous Manufacturing provides a robust process, increases product quality for higher patient safety, reducing costs and time to market at the same time. Arnet Pharmaceutical decided to invest in continuous coating back in 2012. We needed the extra capacity and wanted to increase the turnover and uniformity of batches of over 2/3 million tablets.

Which features do you appreciate the most in the CTC?

CTC is the ultimate technology by IMA Thomas, who have been pioneers in continuous coating since 1993. Continuous coating means you spend less time on material handling while executing a faster coating process. With the CTC system, you get the balance of time management and product quality. It provides better coating uniformity, requires less coating for the complete process and decreases your time requirements to deliver excellent definitions for engraving, bisect, land and edges. The speed of the machine is phenomenal processing from 1,000 to 2,000 kg per hour, depending on the product and the desired weight gain. Easy set up and maintenance are one of the hallmark of this technology.

How do you manage the switch from batch to continuous?

We did go through some growing pains in the beginning, but we hired experienced operators and went through several training sessions with the techs from IMA Thomas. There were small adjustments to formulas in terms of hardness and friability, but nothing major. These days we can run any product on the CTC that we would run on any standard batch coater.

What is the added value of the partnership with IMA Thomas for Arnet Pharmaceutical?

We started our collaboration 15 years ago and worked with him and Joe Kingsley, Senior Sales Engineer at IMA Thomas, all along. They visited Arnet once or twice per year and the communication was always very honest and open between us. They have been supportive throughout the entire process of buying, installation, maintenance and upgrades. Human relationships are an added bonus in our partnership with IMA Thomas: we have created a climate of trust, esteem and respect.

How does the IMA Thomas Competence Center help customers transition from batch to continuous coating processes?

At the Competence Center, we can replicate batch processes using batch coaters in our own lab. Starting from the customer’s parameters, we recreate the process and then use the TAAC modeling tool to transfer them to continuous coating technology. With a continuous coater available in our Competence Center, we physically demonstrate the technology transfer, enabling a smoother transition.