Smart drug packaging for the capture of N-nitrosamine contaminants – MAGIC-N

Recent landmark discoveries of mutagenic N-nitrosamine impurities in pharmaceuticals containing secondary and tertiary amines have led to drug recalls and new regulatory restrictions to protect patients from these carcinogens. To address this risk, Pharma is searching for solution to address N-nitrosamine contamination without impacting the drug formulation or manufacturing processes. In this context, the design of active packaging able to capture N-nitrosamines by physisorption can be serve as a primary solution. MAGIC-N aims at addressing this challenge, by incorporating in novel active packaging industrially-applicable porous sorbents for the capture of volatile N-nitrosamines contaminants. We first aim to identify robust scalable Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) to selectively adsorb traces of N-nitrosamine molecules over water. We will then further fabricate MOF/polymer composites with the MOF sorbents showing the best compromise between sorption performance and industrial needs. Finally, we will design a smart MOF-based packaging that will be integrated in pharmaceuticals boxes for the selective capture N-nitrosamine pollutants emitted by medicines. The consortium assembles two academic groups and one industrial partner, with highly complementary expertise in all aspects of the project, based on a multidisciplinary strategy with a strong interplay between experimental (synthesis, scale-up, characterization, preparation of composite materials and sorption testing) and simulation/modelling approaches towards engineering smart packaging with high value-added technological transfer in the pharmaceutical industry.