The antibiotics sulfamethoxazole (SMTX) and ciprofloxacin (CIP) are commonly used in human and veterinary medicine, which explains their occurrence in wastewater. Anaerobic reactors are low-cost, simple and suitable technology to wastewater treatment, but there is a lack of studies related to the removal efficiency of antibiotics. To overcome this knowledge gap, the objective of this study was to evaluate the removal kinetics of SMTX and CIP using a horizontal-flow anaerobic immobilized biomass reactor. Two different concentrations were evaluated, for SMTX 20 and 40 μg L(-1); for CIP 2.0 and 5.0 μg L(-1). The affluent and effluent analysis was carried out in liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) with the sample preparation procedure using an off-line solid-phase extraction. This method was developed, validated and successfully applied for monitoring the affluent and effluent samples. The removal efficiency found for both antibiotics at the two concentrations studied was 97%. Chemical oxygen demand (COD) exhibited kinetic constants that were different from that observed for the antibiotics, indicating the absence of co-metabolism. Also, though the antibiotic concentration was increased, there was no inhibitory effect in the removal of COD and antibiotics.

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The use of a Quality by Design (QbD) approach in the development of pharmaceutical products is known to bring many advantages to the table, such as increased product and process knowledge, robust manufacturing processes, and regulatory flexibility regarding changes during the commercial phase. However, many companies still adhere to a more traditional pharmaceutical process development—in some cases due to the difficulty of going from a theoretical view of QbD to its actual application. This article presents a real-world case study for the development of an industrial pharmaceutical drug product (oral solid dosage form) using the QbD methodology, demonstrating the activities involved and the gains in obtaining systematic process and product knowledge.