The BioProcess International Conference took place during the last week in October in Boston, MA — when technical editor Cheryl Scott and I enjoyed meeting with so many of our readers, authors, and advisors as well as the BPI sales staff. We always receive good suggestions from our editorial advisors in our annual meeting with them, and the technical presentations help us craft the final version of our 2016 editorial calendar. As always, congratulations to our Informa colleagues at IBC for another excellent program.
This December issue is our fourth annual departure from the usual more technical content. Here we look at a number of business and bigger-pictures issues that affect your work in developing biopharmaceuticals. Authors in this issue touch upon key topics including those affecting progress in single-use technologies, biosimilar development, information technology, decision-making, product portfolios and planning, and cross-team management.
Our fall issues (based on the familiar alternating production, processing, and manufacturing themes) generally begin to point to critical topics that we plan to highlight editorially in the coming year. With this month’s special report on sustainability in bioprocessing, we are delighted to bring you a detailed analysis by authors from Amgen, Genentech, Johnson and Johnson, Merck, and Pfizer, representing a roundtable focus group supported by the American Chemical Society’s Green Chemistry Institute (ACS-GCI). Many biopharmaceutical companies are ramping up their attention to sustainability, especially in these cost-conscious times. How can a company balance environmental responsibility with realistic corporate financial goals? The extensive tables detailing green practices will, I hope, be especially useful. We thank Bill Flanagan of GE for providing an introduction and an addendum describing his company’s approach to sustainable biomanufacturing. As we head into 2016, I hope to hear from our readers about their companies’ own programs and initiatives.
Special reports in 2016 will provide updates on the state of the art in cancer immunotherapies, continuous processing, and antibody–drug conjugates. We have others in the works, as usual, including a series from Women in Biotech. The format is adaptable to a range of topics. These sponsored editorial products introduce emerging trends, focus on overarching issues of importance to the industry, and serve as technology updates/reviews without being advertorials. We are always looking for potential topics and welcome your suggestions.
The 2016 supplements will begin with our annual single-use issue in March — this one continuing the topic of SU supplier-change notification as well as providing a general technology update. You can also look forward to two cell therapy supplements, two outsourcing supplements, and our July issue summarizing the BPI Theater presentations at Interphex and BIO.
Last but not least, with the January issue will come the launch of nominations for BPI’s 2016 awards program. Nominations will be open into June. So start thinking about those now: What new technologies, collaborations, and personal achievements will you want to help us honor at the October 2016 BPI Conference? As always, we look forward to celebrating industry accomplishments with you.