Analytical imaging specialist Dr Janie Dubois of Malvern Instruments will present a paper reviewing the role of near infrared chemical imaging (NIRCI) in the pharmaceutical industry at the Federation of Analytical Chemistry and Spectroscopy Societies FACSS 2010 conference. The conference takes place from October  17^th - 21^st  in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Dr Dubois is presenting as part of the Near- and Mid-Infrared Imaging symposium on October 18^th. Her paper  "From formulating for performance to fingerprinting counterfeits: A review of the roles of NIR chemical imaging in the pharmaceutical industry", authored jointly with Dr E Neil Lewis and Dr Linda Kidder, also of Malvern Instruments, will address the fit of NIR chemical imaging measurements in the quality control and quality by design processes.

In addition, the Malvern team is running a workshop on October 19^th for beginners and intermediate level users of near infrared imaging, covering both instrumentation and data analysis in relation to the broad range of applications typically tackled with this. Malvern experts will also be available on the Kaiser Optical Systems booth at the exhibition to discuss exciting new developments in the application of Raman spectroscopy.

NIRCI is a powerful tool for the analysis of coated and uncoated pharmaceutical tablets, granules, extrusion cores, wafers and trans-dermal delivery systems. It enables a measurement of the chemical heterogeneity present within a sample. Recently there has been a trend to move NIRCI into formulation design, where it is widely used in the determination of blending, coating or milling end-points, risk assessment of ingredient selection and changes of suppliers, while remaining a workhorse for trouble-shooting of dissolution failure as well as counterfeit detection and sourcing. This presentation will provide a review of the various measurements made with NIRCI to fulfil this broad role.

For more information about Malvern's chemical imaging solutions visit www.malvern.com/synirgi

For details of FACSS 2010 visit https://facss.org/facss/program_glance.php

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