A group of students from the Georgia Institute of Technology spent Spring Break (March 18 - 22, 2007) touring the facilities of leading pharmaceutical plants and meeting with engineers and pharmacists at one of the top sites in the world for pharmaceutical manufacturing - Puerto Rico. As part of a semester-long course on pharmaceuticals, this week-long plant trip provided a unique perspective on the pharmaceutical industry that cannot be found at any university.

Accompanied by Drs. Mark Prausnitz and Andy Bommarius, Professors of chemical and biomolecular engineering and Directors of Georgia Tech's Center for Drug Design, Development and Delivery (CD4), the group of 24 undergraduate and graduate students visited manufacturing facilities for pharmaceutical giants such as Amgen, Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Pfizer, and Wyeth, to take an up-front look at how drugs are made at a state-of-the-art facility.

Prausnitz and Bommarius believe by introducing the broad scope of the pharmaceutical industry in the classroom, learning and applying the science that supports the industry in Georgia Tech labs and then allowing them to observe applications of engineering and problem solving first-hand at the Puerto Rican plants creates a truly comprehensive overview. "As a component of the pharmaceutical training program at Georgia Tech, this plant trip gave students a first-hand understanding of the complex processes needed to make drugs and the innovative solutions the pharmaceutical industry has developed," stated Prausnitz.

As the first university from the main-land to visit most of these facilities, the Georgia Tech group was greeted by top management and escorted by the plant designers and operators manufacturing insulin, birth control pills and patches, antibiotics, antidepressants, and cholesterol-reducing drugs. "They were able to learn the nuts and bolts of pharmaceutical manufacturing but also absorb cultural nuances about how to work with designers and plant workers in an increasingly international industry" Bommarius said.

The trip was part of a class, Drug Design, Development and Delivery, which is taught by the two professors and was supported by Georgia Tech's College of Engineering and College of Sciences, as well as the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Schools of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry and Biochemistry. Prausnitz and Bommarius chose Puerto Rico because it is one of the largest sties of pharmaceutical manufactures in the world with one fourth of its gross domestic product derived from the industry.

Chemistry students that participated are:

James Turnbull (UG)
Pratiq Patel (UG)
Patrick Chesley (UG)
Alexandria Joi Pearson (UG)
Victoria Meliopoulos (UG)
Yue Liang (UG)
Maria Victoria Vasquez (UG)
Dustin Hipp (UG)
Mike Salvitti (G)

Prausnitz and Bommarius plan to return to Puerto Rico with their class next spring, since the trip proved to be such a great success and an experience that will provide their students an edge in their education.

CONTACTS

Dr. Mark Prausnitz, (404) 894-5135,
Dr. Andy Bommarius, (404) 385-1334.