LBT Innovations PharmaQC device ‘commercially ready’

Laboratory automation manufacturer LBT Innovations has announced that its APAS PharmaQC automated pharmaceutical manufacturing quality control system was now commercially ready after an extensive period of R&D.

Primary validation of the device has been completed and the technology formally released to pharmaceutical manufacturer AstraZeneca, a partner in the development.

APAS PharmaQC provides automated imaging, analysis and interpretation of microbiology culture plates used in environmental monitoring in pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities.

The cutting-edge technology utilises advanced imaging and sophisticated artificial intelligence algorithms to identify and count microbial growth on culture media, streamlining the quality assurance process.

LBT Innovations CEO and Managing Director Brent Barnes said: “Evidence based automation is incredibly important in the biopharmaceutical industry.

“The completion of our primary validation is a valuable asset to the company – we expect this data to build confidence in our technology and assist customers with the adoption of APAS PharmaQC.”

The system is a development of LBT’s APAS Independence laboratory instrument which is an AI-based imaging, interpretation, sorting and reporting machine that automatically examines culture plates for the presence of bacterial colonies.

In August 2023 the company wrote down the value of the technology and recognised a non-cash impairment of $13.4 million, because of disappointing sales.

In validating PharmaQC LBT Innovations captured 35,000 culture plate images and counted approximately three million bacteria colonies.

There were no false negative results from the system and it demonstrated a high counting accuracy.

Barnes said many customers had given positive feedback to the company’s technological approach.

“We have set ourselves an ambitious commercialisation schedule for 2024 and expect the customer qualification pipeline to accelerate as we present our APAS PharmaQC technology at a number of key global conferences.”

The development of the APAS technology was supported by the Medical Future Fund through MTPConnect’s clinical translation and commercialisation medtech programme

Further reading:
LBT Innovations and AstraZeneca to develop AI systems
https://www.aumanufacturing.com.au/lbt-innovations-writes-down-major-technology“>LBT Innovations writes down major technology

Picture: LBT Innovations