Polar Bears, Bees, Badgers,Muesli and Dry Water – Formulation Award Winners Celebrated at the British Science Festival

Polar bears, bees, badgers and muesli – as well as water that isn’t wet – were some of the more surprising features of a varied event that celebrated the role of formulation science and technology and recognised the work of practitioners and educators of formulation. A packed IPI conference room at the University of Bradford greeted the keynote speakers and the nominees for awards at the “Wonderful World of Formulation” on September 13^th. The celebratory meeting was one of the many varied events held at the University during the prestigious annual British Science Festival (organised by the British Science Association) from September 10^th – 15^th. Photographs from the event can be found on http://bit.ly/okmyPj and copies of speaker presentations will appear shortly in this space and on www.intelligentformulation.org/awards

After an introduction from Dr Rob Jackson, coordinator of chemistry events for the Festival, event co-organiser Dr Jim Bullock of Intelligent Formulation Ltd set the scene for the day with a short presentation which highlighted the value of formulation science and technology to the UK economy, the role of formulating companies in employment and innovation and the world-leading capabilities of the UK’s universities and industrial R&D.

A belated breakfast, followed by  polar bears…

Keynote speaker Dr Ian Jolliffe of Reckitt Benckiser then led the audience on a wide ranging journey. Ian reminded us how many formulated products we had used already that day and then used his breakfast muesli and eggs as an entertaining analogy to explain the role of formulation in developing safe and effective medicines. Ian also described how formulation can be a differentiator which adds performance and value to over-the-counter pharmaceutical products.

The second keynote speaker, Dr Elizabeth Alam of P&G put her passion for formulation into the context of her family life and a varied international career. Elizabeth’s journey was an equally varied one. We learned how the formulation of laundry detergents has to take into account the huge variation from country to country in how we use these products and how better formulation has helped the drive to wash at lower temperatures and cut carbon emissions (which is of course good for polar bears).

Shiny glasses, brick dust and formulation science on the BBC…

After the break, some attendees chose to have a tour of some of the laboratories in Bradford’s IPI (Institute of Pharmaceutical Innovation) building, where instruments used for measuring the properties of formulated products were demonstrated – using chocolate as an example. The remainder of the attendees stayed in the conference room where over the rest of the day they were able to hear from the nominees for the inaugural Formulation Awards. These “short and snappy” talks covered a wide variety of scientific and industrial topics and everyone learned a lot in a short space of time.

First up it was P&G again and Dr Euan Magennis (representing the work of his colleague Emma Watson) showed how an understanding of what makes glassware shiny (or not shiny – it’s all to do with crystals in the film on the glass surface) could be used to improve the formulation of an automatic dishwashing product. Following this, Ian Siragher from Agenda 1 described how a small company could also apply science to the choice of formulation additives which are used to enhance the solubility of pharmaceuticals. Low solubility compounds (memorably called “brick dust”) present one of the industry’s most significant formulation challenges.

Moving on to the theme of communication and education in formulation, Dr Laura Waters of the University of Huddersfield impressed the audience with her story of how she managed to get formulation science onto national BBC television. She gave us the behind the scenes story of her demonstration of cosmetic formulation using natural lanolin seen in an episode of “Kill it, cut it, use it” presented by Julia Bradbury earlier this year. Staying with education, Prof Adrian Williams of the School of Pharmacy at the University of Reading took us through an innovative “problem-based learning” programme. This enables teams of Masters students at the School of Pharmacy to develop an understanding of the role of formulation and dosage design and also helps develops other transferable skills such as team working, time management and communication.

Turning water into a powder and tyres into a wood substitute – and how to avoid culling badgers…

In the afternoon session the nominee presentations continued with a fascinating example from Professor Bernie Binks of the University of Hull. Understanding how emulsions can be stabilised by particles at the interface between the dispersed droplet and the continuous phase enables the formulator to design more complex and more stable formulations. Taking this idea further enables “dry water” to be produced, where water droplets are surrounded by a layer of solid particles which results in a dry powder that contains 95% water. Particles of a very different kind were the subject of the next presentation by Dr Brian Sulaiman of Dena Technologies who gave an impressive demonstration of how high performance materials can be produced from waste material. Using proprietary processing equipment is used to turn old car tyres into micron-sized or nano-sized particles. These are then incorporated into recycled thermoplastic to produce composites which can be used in construction used instead of unsustainable tropical hardwood.

Vaccines are notoriously difficult to deliver orally, and Prof Yvonne Perrie of Aston University (in collaboration with Variation Biotechnologies) described how liposomes can be used as a delivery vehicle. In liposome based formulations vaccines can be protected and examples were given for human influenza as well as for bovine tuberculosis – the latter example provides a possible way for badgers to be vaccinated against TB and hence avoid the need for culling. Moving on from mammals to insects the next speaker was Prof Anant Paradkar of the University of Bradford’s Centre for Pharmaceutical Engineering Science (in collaboration with Nature’s Laboratory). Beehives contain a material, propolis, which has many potential health benefits but is difficult to extract and formulate. However, the Bradford team has however been able to formulate propolis into a water soluble form (for food additives) and into patches (for mouth ulcer treatment). The problem of hospital acquired infections such as C.difficile has never been far from the headlines recently and Dr Ashvin Patel of Kuecept (working in collaboration with MGB Biopharma) described a new approach. Using Kuecept’s ProRelease technology based on drug-containing microparticles some very promising studies have shown how this could be the basis of a treatment for C.difficile for susceptible patients.

Here comes the sun…free of dust

Moving away from healthcare, Dr Sasha Heriot of Chamelic described how the problem of dust deposition on the mirrors used in industrial scale solar power installations can dramatically reduce their efficiency. Fortunately Chamelic’s polymeric additive can be used to provide a dust-repellent layer for these mirrors and now the main challenge of producing a water based formulation has been overcome the commercial potential of this additive is expected to be realised. The role of formulation in industry is about getting the most out of the ingredients you have, rather than inventing new ingredients and in the final nominee presentation of the day, Andrew Elphick of Iota Nanosolutions described how ContraSol technology can be used to “build” formulations of nanoparticles of an active ingredient embedded in a very soluble matrix. This technology enables formulations with improved efficacy and bioavailability to be produced, which is very important in squeezing optimal performance out of pharmaceutical and agrochemical active ingredients.

Finally, celebrating some well earned successes

A successful day finished with the presentation of the inaugural Formulation Awards:

• The Award for Formulation in Industry – sponsored by Syngenta – was awarded to Emma Watson of P&G and presented by Dr Julie McDonald of Syngenta to Emma’s colleague Dr Euan Magennis.
• The Award for Education and Skills in Formulation – sponsored by Intelligent Formulation – was awarded to Dr Laura Waters of the University of Huddersfield and presented by Dr Jim Bullock of Intelligent Formulation.
• The Award for Sustainability in Formulation – sponsored by the RSC’s Formulation Science and Technology Group (FSTG) – was awarded to Dr Brian Sulaiman of Dena Technologies and presented by FSTG Chairman Dr David Higgins.
• The Award for Collaboration in Formulation – sponsored by the University of Birmingham, School of Chemical Engineering – was awarded to Prof Yvonne Perrie of Aston University (in collaboration with Variation Biotechnologies) and presented by Dr Jim Bullock of Intelligent Formulation.
• The Award for Knowledge Transfer in Formulation – sponsored by Chemistry Innovation KTN – was awarded to Andrew Elphick of Iota Nanosolutions and presented by Darren Ragheb of Chemistry Innovation KTN.

Photographs from the event can be found on http://bit.ly/okmyPj and copies of speaker presentations will appear shortly in this space and on www.intelligentformulation.org. Intelligent Formulation would like to thank the following for their assistance in the organisation of the event:

• Dr Rob Jackson and the British Science Festival team
• Dr Ian Scowen and Dr Tasnim Munshi and their colleagues from the University of Bradford
• The Award sponsors Syngenta, RSC FSTG, University of Birmingham and Chemistry Innovation KTN
• The keynote speakers from Reckitt Benckiser and P&G

Note on Intelligent Formulation:

Intelligent Formulation Limited is a not for profit company which specialises in helping companies to innovate better in formulation. The experience and expertise of Intelligent Formulation’s board and its operational team together provide a powerful resource to help our Partner companies. See www.intelligentformulation.org for more details or if you have a question send an e-mail to info@intelligentformulation.org.