The purpose of this study was to develop a novel simulation program to accurately predict the maximum product temperature and the primary drying time in lyophilization using the predictive model for dry layer resistance, which is the resistance of dried cake against water vapor flow. Ten percent sucrose aqueous solution was selected as a model formulation. It was demonstrated that the deviations between the predicted and measured maximum product temperature were attributed to the error of dry layer resistance at a given drying condition, which was different from the measured dry layer resistance in a preliminary lyophilization run for the simulation program. However, when the predictive model of dry layer resistance was used for the simulation program, the model remarkably enhanced the accuracy of the simulation program to predict the maximum product temperature and primary drying time under various operating conditions. Furthermore, the primary drying condition required for minimized drying at a close collapse temperature was successfully discovered through one preliminary run. Therefore, it is expected that the developed simulation program is useful for designing the lyophilization cycle without a trial and error approach.Key words simulation; dry layer mass transfer resistance; maximum product temperature; primary drying time Lyophilization is widely employed in pharmaceutical industries to enhance the stability of drug products for parenteral injection. The lyophilization cycle mainly consists of three steps: freezing, primary drying, and secondary drying. Generally, the primary drying process is carried out through sublimation, and requires up to a few days. In order to maximize the sublimation rate in primary drying, it is important that the vial heat transfer rate is as high as possible, resulting in a minimized primary drying time and high product temperature. However, the maximum product temperature has to be kept below the collapse temperature, where a lyophilized cake loses macroscopic structure and collapses, to ensure the elegant appearance of the lyophilized cake and its stability. Hence, enormous efforts have been spent to minimize the primary drying time without the collapse of lyophilized cakes by adjusting the shelf temperature and chamber pressure in pharmaceutical development.In order to minimize the trial and error experiments, the mathematical model for the prediction of the optimized product temperature is thought to be useful. The mathematical model expressed by heat and mass transfer has been investigated for the expression of the sublimation phenomenon by many researchers. [1][2][3][4][5] In the heat and mass transfer model, two parameters, heat transfer coefficient and dry layer resistance, are important for estimating the product temperature during primary drying. The heat transfer coefficient for the estimation of the heat transfer rate depends on the lyophilizer and the glass vial container and its stopper, and is experimentally determined by a water sublimation test. [6][7][8] The ...