British drugmakers GlaxoSmithKline ($GSK) and AstraZeneca ($AZN) have put money into researching new technology to determine how processing affects APIs. Both companies have helped fund research at the University of Warwick in the U.K. into using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), which is usually used on liquids, to identify the different variations an API can take and so control for that, in-PharmaTechnologist reports. "This is very important for manufacturers because the interactions between organic molecules are quite weak. They can easily switch from one form to another, and this could provide different and adverse affect on patient," lead researcher Steven Brown tells the publication. NMR use could be a step forward over the "largely ineffective" X-ray diffraction method, the researchers say in a paper published in a scientific journal. A number of companies are looking for improvements in manufacturing, like continuous supply processing, to cut costs and make it more efficient and reliable. Story | More