Introduction to pharmaceutical microbiology

Pharmaceutical microbiology is a specialist area of microbiology and one concerned with the use of microorganisms in pharmaceutical development and with maintaining contamination control. This chapter introduces the subject and outlines some the typical tests conducted within a pharmaceutical microbiology laboratory (such as microbial limits, sterility, endotoxin, water testing, and environmental monitoring). The chapter further considers the role of the microbiologist in relation to the pharmaceutical processing environment, and the necessary contribution that the microbiologist must make to an organization’s contamination control strategy.