Economics

Special Report: The Path to Vaccine Profitability

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Managing vaccine supply chain improvements involves a complex interaction of laboratories, other facilities, CMOs, and suppliers. Since the business of making vaccines became a commercial proposition, profitability has often been elusive. The economics are difficult: Costs of development and production, already high, are rising. Profit margins historically have been lower than those of other pharmaceutical products, in part because of the complexities of manufacturing and distributing vaccines as well as their stringent safety, testing, and quality requirements.

February 6, 2015

Revenue per FTE and Cost per FTE: Metrics of Operational Efficiency and Performance

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www.graphicstock.com Revenue from operations (herein referred to as revenue) and operating cost (herein referred to as cost) are two independent sentinels of a corporation’s performance and return on investment (ROI), which is defined as the ratio of revenue to cost (revenue/cost). Although a company can actively manage cost by controlling its number of full-time employees (FTEs) and the number or type of activities, it cannot directly manage revenue. Revenue is entirely driven by market forces. So if a company experiences…

December 11, 2014

The US Biosimilars Future Is Hard to Predict: Global Health Policy, Innovation, Prices, and Profits Are All at Stake

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Enthusiasm in the United States over opportunities for biosimilars has waned since such products were first launched in Europe. The hesitation stems from confusion and uncertainty surrounding regulations. Manufacturers and suppliers are looking for guidance from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which has promised guidelines that are still in process after five years. Even naming protocols for biosimilars are clogging the works. And in the absence of coherent FDA guidelines, many US states are haphazardly implementing laws concerning…

December 11, 2014

Entrepreneurship, Lessons Learned, and Bioindustry Perspectives: An Interview with Roger-Marc Nicoud

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Roger-Marc Nicoud received his PhD from the University of Lorraine in process simulation for the nuclear industry. He joined Separex in 1987, first as a technical director and then as a managing director until 1995. Between 1993 and 1995, he also worked as professor and headed a research laboratory involved in thermodynamics at the University of Lorraine. Nicoud founded Novasep in 1995 with the objective of developing comprehensive solutions for producing biologic and synthetic molecules. Novasep became a leading life-sciences…

December 11, 2014

Build, Buy . . . or “Rent†Capacity? A New GMP Biomanufacturing Business Model

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When it’s time to move from preclinical to clinical-phase product testing, many biopharmaceutical companies face a difficult decision: whether to build or buy a biomanufacturing facility for in-house production or outsource the work to a contract manufacturing organization (CMO). Accinov is a new company that straddles the line between those concepts. Its new biomanufacturing center supports client companies toward clinical development in an innovative way. We propose a groundbreaking model for running good manufacturing practice (GMP) biomanufacturing. Our company’s approach…

December 11, 2014

Shrink Your Inventory Costs And Make Your Staff Happier

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Shire’s process development department recently overhauled its inventory control system. The result was a projected five-year net benefit of over US$1.5 million and an immediate increase in its scientists’ productivity and satisfaction. Hiding in Plain Sight We asked one of our scientists why he kept 12 cases of gloves on his laboratory bench. “I use a lot of them,†he told us. “I don’t want to run out.†When asked how long his supply would last, he replied, “I don’t know.…

December 11, 2014

Bridging Innovation and Partnerships in Mission Bay: Bayer’s CoLaborator Program

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Looking at the landscape today, it’s hard to believe that in 2004 the Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco, CA, was home to only two biotechnology companies. Over the past decade, industry-leading organizations across academia, clinical care, and research have settled in the area, creating a thriving ecosystem of more than 100 life science companies. Prestigious academic and research institutions such as The Gladstone Institutes and University of California San Francisco as well as life science accelerators such as QB3…

December 11, 2014

Process Effectiveness Analysis Toward Enhanced Operational Efficiency, Faster Product Development, and Lower Operating Costs

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Complex drug development and biomanufacturing processes involve back-and-forth shuttling of activities among multiple functions. Close communication, collaboration, and coordination among stakeholder departments and functions are needed to successfully execute these processes. Whereas collaboration between multiple functions leverages each function’s expertise, the resultant structure also poses several challenges, as listed in Table 1 (1). These challenges are further exacerbated as an organization grows in size and geography (2, 3). In the absence of clarity and appropriate assignment of roles and responsibilities,…

November 10, 2014

Creating Value Through Investment

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During my MBA course, Professor Pierre Casse — then at the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Lausanne, Switzerland — regularly reminded us that one key to success was constantly finding new ways to “delight and inspire your clients†by creating value. SAFC achieved that objective in its “Overcoming Supply Chain Vulnerability and Lowering Risk in Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing†symposium 17–18th June 2014 in Turnberry, Scotland. Along with a day of industry insight, the event included a visit and tour…

November 10, 2014

Cost Estimation for Protein A Chromatography: An In Silico Approach to MAb Purification Strategy

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Monoclonal antibody (MAb) production has adopted an accepted technology platform for downstream processing (1). The need for more economic processes has been addressed by increasing MAb titers in fermentation and aiming toward greater bioreactor volumes to increase productivity. Consequently, cost pressures are now passed on to downstream process groups. Membrane and chromatography resin savings are more important for MAb processes than ever before, with highly productive cell cultures generating large volumes of process fluid to purify (2). Traditionally, protein A…

October 16, 2014