From batch to continuous — New opportunities for supercritical CO₂ technology in pharmaceutical manufacturing

Poor solubility and bioavailability of new chemical entities is a major challenge that keeps plaguing the pharmaceutical industry and jeopardizes their away to the market. Nanotechnologies hold a great promise to overcome these chemical barriers. In particular, for supercritical CO₂ technologies, the scientific community has seen significant development of these types of processes over the last 15–20 years, however these techniques are still waiting to see the daylight in the industrial environmental. Continuous operation of supercritical processes and their adaptation to existing industrial facilities opens new doors for their success in the pharmaceutical arena. This commentary paper aims to discuss the current status of supercritical CO₂ techniques and the major future opportunities for their implementation in the pharmaceutical industry in the coming years.