Here at Affygility Solutions, we often attend conferences and events that are entirely outside of the environmental, health and safety field. The purpose of attending these events is to spark innovation and creativity, so that we may drive improvements to our products and services, which will ultimately improve the value of these products and services to our customers. With that said, here our my top ten innovation quotes:

Innovation Quotes – My Top Ten

1. “The innovations that will greatly improve environmental, health and safety performance won’t come from EH&S professionals. Rather, these innovations will come from outside the field and will be adopted to fit EH&S” – D. Calhoun, CIH.
2. “Successful innovators ask users to embrace–or at least tolerate–new values, new skills, new behaviors, new vocabularies, new ideas, new expectations, and new aspirations. They transform their customers. Successful innovators reinvent their customers as well as their businesses. Their innovations make customers better and make better customers.” – M. Schrage, Fast Company
3. “If you try to make an improvement, you are almost by definition in a smartness contest with all of your peers and everyone that has come before you. You probably are not going to win. But, if you try to do things ten times better, you have no hope of getting that done using traditional methods. You have to rely on bravery, creativity and perspective shifting.” A. Teller, Google
4. “The innovators who create products at “hackathons” aren’t even trying to disrupt your business. You’re just the collateral damage.” – L. Downes and P.F. Nunes.
5. “During the past two centuries, innovation has more than doubled our life span and given us cheap energy and more food. If we project what the world will be like 10 years from now without continuing innovation in health, energy or food, the picture is dark.” – B. Gates
6. “Innovation is something that average people do every day to live extraordinary lives.” – C. Gallo
7. “Innovation cannot occur in the absence of passion; without it, you have little hope of creating breakthrough ideas.” – C. Gallo
8. “Simply innovating doesn’t guarantee success, but you’ll learn far more from the risks you take than by maintaining the status quo.” – L. Howes
9. “Innovation almost always is not successful the first time out. You try something and it doesn’t work and it takes confidence to say we haven’t failed yet. … Ultimately you become commercially successful.” C. Christensen
10. “Where do you put the fear when you choose to innovate? The fear is there, but you have to find a place to put it. – S. Godin.

Through attendance at these events Affygility Solutions has created such innovative services like OEL Fastrac. A service where life science companies can get immediate access to occupational exposure limit monographs for active pharmaceutical ingredients.

I hope you enjoy the above innovation quotes, and I leave you with the following questions. “Where do you get your inspiration for innovation?” “What are your favorite innovation quotes?”

Affygility Solutions is pleased to announce the immediate availability of the OEL Fastrac monograph for hydroxyzine. Hydroxyzine, a piperazine derivative, is a sedating antihistamine with antimuscarinic and significant sedative properties; it is also an antiemetic. Hydroxyzine is mainly used in the treatment of anxiety prior to medical procedures, and for rash with itching. The most common adverse effects reported with taking hydroxyzine compounds include drowsiness, dizziness, rapid heartbeat, dilated pupils and urinary retention. Over-exposure to hydroxyzine in an occupational setting is expected to mimic those adverse effects observed in a clinical setting.

OEL Fastrac monographs are an affordable way to obtain high-quality, credible occupational exposure limit monographs. OEL Fastrac monographs have been used by biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and medical device companies throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia.

Click here to ORDER now.

Why OEL Fastrac Monographs?

• Fully documented. 7-11 pages in length, with calculations and cited references.
• Credible and reliable information. OEL Fastrac monographs are used by dozens of pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies throughout the world.
• Expert preparation. Industry experts with advance degrees, professional certifications, and decades of experience.
• High quality. Proprietary 18-point quality process.
• Save time! Unsurpassed delivery with instant download.
• Save money. Similar documents cost 5-12 times as much.
• Stay current. Automatic notification of revisions.

For example, take the challenge of permissible exposure limits (PELs). Currently, about 500 PELs exist. But, there are literally tens of thousands of hazardous compounds that are in use today. OSHA would never be able to established PELs for even a fraction of these compounds. Industries need to take the lead similar to what has been done in the pharmaceutical industry. In the pharmaceutical industry there are thousands of active pharmaceutical ingredients that are potentially hazardous from an occupational exposure standpoint. Did occupational health professionals in the industry just sit back and say “Oh well, we will wait till OSHA passes some PELs.” No they didn’t. It is now common industry practice to develop and establish internal occupational exposure limits for the APIs that they may handle or process. The occupational health professionals then perform risk assessments, evaluate processes, and establish controls to reduce the risk.

The Risk Assessment Equation

In its most simple form, most risk assessments are based on the following equation:

Risk = (Hazard or Severity) X (Probability of Occurrence)

There are many risk assessment models that have been in use for years. These include HAZOP, What-If, Process Hazard Analysis, FEMA, and others.

So what needs to be done? Industries of every size need to step up and take the lead. They need to proactively establish risk assessment processes and implement controls to reduce risk. People can argue all they want about ineffective regulatory agenices, but in the end, they still wouldn’t be able to keep up.

Potent Compound Safety Training From Your Own Office

Avoid the hassle and expense of time-consuming travel. Attend this 5-module series from the convenience of your own office, or register your entire team and view in your own conference room (group discounts are available). Learn potent compound safety principles such as the definition of a potent compound, occupational exposure control banding, calculation of occupational exposure limits (OELs) for active pharmaceutical ingredients, engineering controls, and containment.

Each module is 2 hours long, with a 10-15 minute break at approximately the mid-point.

Register Early to Ensure a Spot

In order to ensure a high degree of interaction, Affygility Solutions limits the number of attendees for each module, so REGISTER EARLY. Register by May 1st, 2013 and receive 20% off each attendee by using the early discount code of “jh2mq7″ No other offers are discounts may be applied or combined.

Taught by Pharmaceutical Industry Experts

The Advanced Topics in Potent Compound Safety webinar series is taught by industry experts with advance degrees, professional certifications, and decades of pharmaceutical industry experience.

Using the above example of the pharmaceutical manufacturing facility of the future, linear thinking we might ask, “How can we improve flexibility, quality, potent compound safety, reduce costs, etc?” Non-linear thinking might ask the question, “Do we even need a manufacturing facility in the first place?” As an example, here’s a concept for a printer that produces drugs.

Is this a wild idea? Yes, but that’s the point, and innovation in this direction is already occurring. Novartis Pharmaceuticals has teamed with MIT to develop a continuous manufacturing process, and GSK already has deployed liquid dosing technology. Will there be challenges? Yes. Will there be naysayers? Of course. Will it require regulatory changes? Yep. But, one thing is for certain, don’t underestimate the power of innovation.

For example, when the human genome was first sequenced back in 2001, the cost was about one hundred million dollars, within two years that cost was cut in half, in less than a year it was halved again. Today, by the end of this year, the cost to sequence the human genome is expected to be close to $1,000 – now that’s a non-linear improvement!

Occupational Exposure Limits and Acceptable Daily Exposure Values for Pharmaceuticals

OEL Fastrac monographs offer the following benefits:

• Save time! Unsurpassed digital delivery with instant download.
• Expert preparation. Industry experts with advance degrees, professional certifications, and decades of experience.
• Fully documented. 9-11 pages in length, with calculations and cited references.
• High quality. Proprietary 18-point quality process.
• Save money. Similar documents cost 8-12 times as much.
• Stay current. Automatic notification of revisions at no additional costs.

For more information, and to browse our catalog of over 250 OEL/ADE monographs, go to oelfastrac.com.

Risk Assessments – Why You need to Understand the Process

Often, in potent compound safety programs, the process of risk assessments is mistaken for the process of determining the toxicological hazards of an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) and placement of that API into a specific hazard category. Unfortunately, while understanding the toxicological hazards of an API is very important, it is only one part of the overall risk assessment process. The determination of the hazard category for an API does not  tell you the overall scale of the process, the physical form that it will be handled, the type of systems that it will be handled, and many other factors that may influence the potential for occupational exposure to the API.

Risk Assessment Workshop – What You will Learn

In this highly interactive workshop, the attendees will be expected to leave with knowledge of:

• The risk assessment process
• Knowledge of governmental regulations that require risk assessment
• Different types of risk assessment methodologies such as PHA, HAZOP, What- If, FEMA, AIHA’s qualitative exposure assessment model, and others
• An understanding why risk assessments as an essential component of a potent compound safety program
• Currently available tools to assist in the risk assessment process In addition, the attendees of the workshop will have the opportunity to practice the use of these tools on real-life examples.

To register for this workshop and the rest of the HPAPI Summit, go to http://hpapi-summit.com/

In addition, if you’re attending the HPAPI Summit and would like to arrange a meeting with Mr. Calhoun to discuss risk assessments or other elements of a potent compound safety program, please complete the contact us form on the Affygility Solutions website.

Occupational exposure limits and acceptable daily exposure values for pharmaceuticals

OEL Fastrac monographs offer the following benefits:

• Save time! Unsurpassed delivery with instant download.
• Expert preparation. Industry experts with advance degrees, professional certifications, and decades of experience.
• Fully documented. 8-11 pages in length, with calculations and cited references.
• High quality. Proprietary 18-point quality process.
• Save money. Similar documents cost 5-12 times as much.
• Stay current. Automatic notification of revisions.

For more information, and to browse our catalog of over 249 monographs, visit oelfastrac.com today!

Affygility Solutions is pleased to announce that occupational exposure limit monographs for pramoxine HCl, phenytoin sodium, ergotamine tartrate, and eplerenone are now available for instant download through our OEL Fastrac service. To review the details for each of these documents, click on the links below:

• Pramoxine HCL – is used as a topical anesthetic for antipruritic
• Phenytoin sodium – commonly used as an antiepileptic
• Ergotamine tartrate – used for acute migraine attacks
• Eplerenone – used as an adjunct in the management of chronic heart failure

Occupational exposure limits for pharmaceuticals at an incredible value

OEL Fastrac monographs offer the following benefits:

• Save time! Unsurpassed delivery with instant download.
• Expert preparation. Industry experts with advance degrees, professional certifications, and decades of experience.
• Fully documented. 8-11 pages in length, with calculations and cited references.
• High quality. Proprietary 18-point quality process.
• Save money. Similar documents cost 5-12 times as much.
• Stay current. Automatic notification of revisions.

For more information, and to browse our catalog of over 250 monographs, visit oelfastrac.com today!

Affygility Solutions is please to announce that its next Advanced Topics in Potent Compound Safety webinar series will begin on Tuesday, November 20th, 2012 at 9 a.m. Mountain Time. In this 5-part webinar series, the instructors will cover the following topics

• Describe the basic definition of a “potent compound.”
• Describe at least 3 examples where occupational exposure to active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) has caused unintended adverse health effects to employees.
• Describe the basic elements of a potent compound safety program.
• Understand basic and advance toxicology as it relates to exposure to active pharmaceutical ingredients.
• Be able to perform basic occupational health risk assessments for active pharmaceutical ingredients.
• Understand basic industrial hygiene monitoring strategies as they relate to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries; and
• Describe occupational exposure control banding principles, and the various engineering, administrative, and PPE controls used within the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry.

Avoid the hassle and expense of traditional location-based training. Each module is two-hours long, with a 15-minute break at approximately the mid-point of each session. This webinar series has been attended by pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device companies throughout the world. The Advanced Topics in Potent Compound Safety Series is taught by industry experts with advance degrees, professional certifications, and decades of pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device industry experience. To learn more about the Advanced Topics in Potent Compound Safety webinar series and other webinars offered by Solutions, please go to their website at http://affygility.com. Register today.