Product life cycle extension

From the environmental impact point of view service extension gives the supplier a greater involvement in the product life-cycle, with the potential to help manage the product through the life-cycle. 

Thirty years on from the explosion of commercially successful applications of targeted and controlled release pharmaceutical formulations, it is evident that there remains a need for further refinements and innovations in the field of drug delivery. Many of the larger corporations focus on the use of novel technology for extension of a product life cycle however, in many cases solubility and permeability issues limit the application of such technologies. Additional complications arise due to inter- and intrasubject variability, compliance, and chronobiological variation in disease incidence. 

Various strategies are pursued by pharmaceutical companies to extend the product life cycle. Under the Hatch-Waxman Act, patent term extensions are available for patented drug substances, drug products, method of use, and method of manufacturing to compensate for the time lost in the FDA s regulatory approval process. However, the limitations of the statute of the following aspects have to be considered ... 

Process design a yes score has been awarded since product life-cycle analyses are discussed extensively. Examples are given of ... 

SACs are only useful if benefits in the whole Product Life Cycle justify the acceptance of special application expenditures and application restrictions. The result could be that SACs must be avoided by changes or extensions of the item. In other cases SACs can avoid extensive analyses in projects of superior items. E.g. a SAC which specifies that an item is not usable for open networks according to EN50159-2, avoids analyses on higher levels if the item is usable for open networks. Such SACs, which are justified in the item concept or design, can be avoided by early planning, about which SACs are necessary, compare with section 6. The requirements and the architecture of the considered item can be changed most easily at an early phase. 

Traditionally, most of the R D is done at the headquarters. Therefore in the product life cycle model, a multinational firm not headquartered in the lead market is at a disadvantage compared to competitors headquartered in the lead market. Many multinational firms, however, have already built up an extensive worldwide network of R D laboratories. Aside from the firms active shift of R D abroad, mergers and acquisitions also lead to regionally dispersed R D activities of mul-... 

Several studies on FWAs have concluded that diarninostilbenedisulfonic acid/cyanuric chloride (DAS/CC) and distyrylbiphenyl (DSBP) type whiteners are of a low order of toxicity. Thek safety has been extensively reviewed by governmental agencies there is no evidence of human health ha2ards. FWA producers and users consider these products to be both safe and beneficial to the ultimate consumer. This view is supported by appropriate trade associations. A comprehensive review of available safety and environmental data has been pubflshed (82). In addition, principal suppHers are conducting life cycle analyses on the primary whiteners in use (ca 1993). 

A pharmaceutical product has a limited life cycle and once the patent expires, generic competitors rapidly enter the market. There are a number of strategies that companies can adopt to try to extend patent life. These include line extensions, reformulations, combination products or switching to over-the-counter (OTC) sales. In the United States, but at this point not the European... 

None of these is independent of the other products may be brought into development along the timeline of vintages these may be inserted into one or more therapeutic areas and matched for their profit or market size. Major brands can be reinforced by life-cycle management initiatives including new formulations to extend the main franchise, different forms to suit a wider catchment of patients and the extension to new indications possibly by the use of different or novel formulations at the same time. 

Part III, "Case Studies" (Chapters 9 through 12), takes these illustrations a bit further, namely, by demonstrating the analysis for some of the most important processes in industry energy conversion, separations, and chemical conversion. Chapter 12 briefly discusses the concept of life cycle analysis, which aims to compare the consolidated inputs and outputs of a process or a product "from the cradle to the grave" [9], and its extension to include the minimization of process irreversibilities in a so-called exergetic life cycle analysis [10]. 

Chapters 9 through 12 demonstrate thermodynamic, or exergy analysis of industrial processes. First, Chapter 9 deals with the most common energy conversion processes. Then, Chapter 10 presents this analysis for an important industrial separation process, that of propane and propylene. Finally, Chapter 11 analyzes two industrial chemical processes the production of polyethylene. Chapter 12 is included to discuss life cycle analysis in particular its extension into exergetic life cycle analysis, which includes the "fate" or history of the quality of energy. 

---