In Indiana, Purdue University researchers and industry leaders are teaming up to transform the freeze-drying process, formally known as lyophilization, used to make everything from lifesaving drugs and biotech products to foods. A consortium of researchers and industry members from pharmaceutical and food processing sectors are working together to modernize lyophilization, a process worth $16 billion annually that has not changed in 70 years.
“Our ultimate goal is to develop a new type of process that will make lyophilization obsolete,” said Elizabeth Topp, professor of industrial and physical pharmacy. “I hope the conventional inefficient process will be supplanted by something that can be better controlled and is much more efficient in terms of time and energy.”
Developed during World War II to preserve blood plasma and medications such as penicillin without the need for refrigeration, lyophilization removes water from a product after it is frozen and placed under a vacuum.