Win-Win for Industry and Research

Korsch:Magazine: What is the function of the KORSCH INNOVATION CENTERs and MEDELPHARM Science Lab around the world?

Bruno Leclercq: They gather a team of formulation and process experts combined with state-of-the-art technology, offering consulting, feasibility studies, formulation, scaling up for production, troubleshooting for existing processes, and training on tableting technology.

This gives them several roles:

• Dialogue with customers by offering solutions to practical challenges.
• Sales support with technology demonstrations and training programs.
• Cooperation with universities. This is a long-term endeavour – PhD students are the next generation of pharmaceutical scientists and engineers. I am convinced that they will enrich the industry as managers tomorrow, which is why we enjoy working with them today.
• Beta testing for new solutions developed by our design departments. They are our first customers.

Korsch:Magazine: At what levels does co-operation with universities and research institutes take place?

Bruno Leclercq: The pharmaceutical faculties are multipliers for us. Researchers and PhD students use the KORSCH and MEDELPHARM equipment in their studies. When they later embark on their careers in the pharmaceutical industry, they are already familiar with it. This creates a sustainable win-win situation: we can use the feedback from users in research to initiate further developments and, conversely, we are available to the PhD students with a second opinion from a practical perspective, in addition to their dialogue with the supervising professor. This interaction requires proactive, continuous activities, which is why this is a long-term strategy for us.

Korsch:Magazine: How do you find out about current research activities worldwide?

Bruno Leclercq: One source of information is scientific publications in specialised journals, another is our personal contacts at the universities themselves. Sometimes we are given the opportunity to review a paper. We want to expand this personal contact with a strategic approach: Our formulation and process experts should closely follow developments at universities and be committed to expanding the exchange with researchers – regardless of whether they are pursuing an industrial or academic career.

Korsch:Magazine: Are there regional differences in the collaboration with universities?

Bruno Leclercq: There is no difference in regards to the scientific collaborations between KORSCH and MEDELPHARM and universities. The key for success is a strong relationship with the professors and especially PhD students to find common ground for a win-win collaboration. KORSCH and MEDELPHARM are working together on innovative solutions to provide state-of-the-art technologies to the most scientifically-recognized universities in the field of tableting globally. Our mission is to develop country-specific strategies to further increase the access to our technologies for academia and actively support scientific research. We will also participate more frequently in specialized conferences that are held in academic circles in the respective national language with the support of our local partners (e.g. in India, China, Japan or Brazil). In America and Europe, on the other hand, we are building on established networks where the dialogue is established and sustainable. 

Korsch:Magazine: What other forms of cooperation are there?

Bruno Leclercq: Above all, the valuable exchange of experience and knowledge: two or three times a year, we offer webinars for 200 to 400 participants in which users share their experiences. Inspired by the American Lunch & Learn format, we also invite around 15 to 20 participants to our “Chat around a coffee” to discuss new publications online, briefly and informally. Additionally the PhD students appreciate the machine trainings that are part of our after-sales service. Like all customers, they have access to our highly frequented resource platform “mySTYL‘One” to use scientific papers, case studies, manuals, and other value-added information.