Micro-electronics and pharmaceuticals

EE July/August 1986 MICROELECTRONICS AND by Charles Lewis Public confidence in the pharmaceutical industry is such that both doctor and patient usually accept without question the qual- ity and therapeutic re- liability of medicinal products. However, constant and stringent precautions and checks are necessary at all stages of manufacture to ensure the quality and safety of such products. Since pharmaceuticals apply directly to human beings, this is of prime im- portance and the manufacturers" responsi- bilities are that much more onerous. Close attention to quality and safety, of course, is in the interests of the manufacturers themselves, since they have their own hard earned reputations to safeguard by ensuring that their products are exactly what they are claimed to be. Conse- quently there is a ceaseless search for new and improved ways of achieving these ob- jectives. The advent of micro- electronics has proved of the greatest importance, not least to the producers of manufa...