In 2012, to mark BPI’s 10th year of publication, we launched our biennial BioProcess International Awards program. Our publication has from the start aimed to help drive advancements in this industry, not simply to report on them. We have to date (in 2012, 2014, and now 2016) recognized more than 50 people and companies that represent excellence in leadership, corporate citizenship, collaborations and partnerships, and innovative technologies and applications.
This year, our 16-member judging panel evaluated each nomination within assigned categories and scored it according to specific criteria that we provided. They assessed the same general questions as applicable to each award: applicability, innovation, results, industry impact, and sustainability.
On the evening of 5 October, at the BioProcess International Conference in Boston, publisher Brian Caine and I introduced the 24 finalists and announced the winners. We also announced the 2016 Industry Champion, Mark Petrich (director of component engineering at Merck & Co.). Mark has championed single-use technologies with a strong focus on their future capabilities. Thus he leads his company and the industry toward realizing a vision of future manufacturing processes.
In our December issue, a special report will detail the winning nominees. But to whet your appetite for that, here are this year’s finalists and winners for 2016:
PEOPLE
Excellence in Leadership: Selexis CEO Igor Fisch is our 2016 honoree. Finalists were Marcel Bassil (associate director, Benta Pharma Industries) and Olivier Loeillot (general manager, GE Healthcare).
ORGANIZATIONS
Emerging Company Award: NuMedii, Inc. is our 2016 honoree . Finalists were Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult and Quad Technologies.
Corporate Citizenship: GSK ‘s PULSE Partnership Program is our 2016 honoree. Finalists were the Baxter International Foundation and Biogen (for closing the gaps in hemophilia treatment in emerging countries).
Facility Design or Retrofit: JHL Biotech is our 2016 honoree for its KUBio installation in Wuhan, China. Finalists were FujiFILM Diosynth and Gibraltar Laboratories.
Best Collaboration: Puridify and GSK are our 2016 winners for their industrial FibroSelect units. Finalists were GEA and G-Con Manufacturing, Inc.’s PCMM Consortium and the Cadence Acoustic Separator from Pall Life Sciences and FloDesign Sonics.
TECHNOLOGIES
Upstream: Stratophase is our 2016 honoree for its Ranger cell culture process development service. Finalists were Nova Biomedical (FLEX2) and Glycotope (sedimentation in an automated microbioreactor, SAM).
Downstream: Pall Life Sciences is our 2016 winner for introducing the Cadence Acoustic Wave Separator. Finalists were Puridify (Fibroselect) and Sanofi (accelerated seamless antibody purification, ASAP).
Analytical: Sciex is our 2016 honoree for high-throughput glycosylation analysis. Finalists were Catalent (BioLayer Interferometry) and Ovizio (iLineF).
Many thanks go out to our record number of nominees for all their good work, to our judges for their valuable opinions, and to all of you who strive to improve existing bioprocesses and drive innovations in healthcare.
