Near-Infrared (NIR) Monitoring of H2O2 Vapor Concentration During Vapor Hydrogen Peroxide (VHP) Sterilisation

Purpose. There is an increasing use in the pharmaceutical industry of barrier systems such as transfer isolators, sterilisation tunnels and work station isolators. As Vapor Hydrogen Peroxide (VHP) sterilisation of isolators and lyophilizers becomes an important sterilisation method, there is an acute need for a VHP monitoring system to be used for in-process control and validation. In this study, near infrared (NIR) spectrofotometry was evaluated as a potential technique to monitor hydrogen peroxide. Additionally the H2O2 vapor permeability of different packaging materials, commonly used in steam and ethylene oxide sterilisation, was evaluated.