Martin Noye Zugah

Pharmaceutical Engineering Research Group

Ottergemsesteenweg 460

B-9000 Gent(Belgium)

Education: Pharmaceutical Technology and Process Engineering

Biography

Martin Noye Zugah earned an M.Eng. in Pharmaceutical Process Engineering from Abulcasis School of Engineering (Morocco) in 2023 and an M.Sc. in Pharmaceutical Technology from Université Paris Cité (France) in 2024. Additionally, he graduated with a Pharm.D. in 2023 from Hassan II University (Morocco). His combined background in engineering and pharmaceutical sciences has equipped him to work on interdisciplinary projects that span material characterization, formulation, and process modeling. For his PharmD thesis, he investigated the impact of material and process parameters on tablet capping using data-driven models. In 2024, he began his Ph.D. research on developing an in silico dissolution testing framework to enable real-time release testing in solid dosage manufacturing.

Summary of Research Project

In the pharmaceutical industry, ensuring compliance with release specifications has traditionally involved extensive end product testing. This approach requires a holistic set of off-line laboratory tests to confirm product quality prior to release. However, it is time-consuming, labor-intensive, costly (high consumption of solvents), and leads to delayed lead time.

Alternatively, Real Time Release Testing (RTRt) has emerged as a faster, efficient, non-destructive and sustainable approach to ensure product quality, without or with less end product testing. This is accomplished by developing models to predict in real time one or more Critical Quality Attributes (CQAs) based on in-process data originating from material attributes, process parameters and Process Analytical Technologies (PAT) such as NIR and Raman.

This project aims to build a generic predictive dissolution modelling framework to enable RTRt in solid dosage manufacturing. The project will focus on tablets manufactured via batch and continuous direct compression(CDC). The impact of material attributes and process parameters on the dissolution of the tablets will be assessed. PAT tools such as NIR and Raman will be implemented to monitor the blend and content uniformity. Furthermore, the project seeks to assess whether formulation and process design are transferable across batch and different CDC lines. The latter will be essential in achieving a truly generic RTRt framework and reducing costs often associated with CDC process development.