Ireland is an exciting place when it comes to research, development, innovation, and commercialization in biologics and life sciences. The government of Ireland’s strategy for Science Technology and Innovation (ST&I 2006–2013) includes key deliverables stressing the importance of a dynamic infrastructure to enable further growth in these important fields. A strong foreign direct investment policy has secured >US$5 billion from global players including Genzyme, Centocor, Merck, Wyeth, and Pfizer in recent years. Ireland also has built a strong indigenous biotech…
Business
Banking Parental Cells According to CGMP Guidelines
It is often difficult to accurately anticipate quality standards across today’s global regulatory environments. In recent years, quality expectations have increased as a result of public demand and government regulation while regulatory requirements are often written with limited specificity. Regulations pertaining to parental cell lines (cells engineered to become biotherapeutic production cell lines) is one such area where current regulations leave room for interpretation. Here we explore some important considerations for determining quality standards for parental cell lines. Cell Line…
A Formulation Strategy for Quickly Reaching Clinical Trials
The aim of any company making protein-based therapeutics is to get to the clinic quickly with a product formulation that has the best chance of success. Any number of specific formulation development and manufacturing issues can keep such drugs from advancing expeditiously to the clinic. To be successful organizations must balance the strengths and weaknesses of each individual molecule against timelines, budgets, and priorities. Ultimately, it’s not just about deploying the best methodologies and processes, but of applying them appropriately…
A Modular Approach to Facility Validation
Biopharmaceutical manufacturers are striving to maintain productivity and profits while controlling increasing costs. Historically, validation has been seen as an expensive, non–value-added necessity to gaining regulatory approval to manufacture. Less often is it seen as a key element of an overall quality management system (QMS) that supports the safety, quality, and efficacy of end products for patients while also providing invaluable knowledge and experience for enhanced process control and management. When fully integrated with a QMS, a modular validation platform…
50 Years of Sephadex Media
It has been 50 years since the first Sephadex paper was published (1). Readers of BioProcess International work in a field that was fundamentally affected by what happened after that paper appeared in 1959. So this anniversary is certainly worthy of a party and a few speeches. But there are lessons to be learned, too. Here we take a look at threads connecting events before and after the discovery of gel filtration chromatography and introduction of the Sephadex product. Interdisciplinary…
Software Simplifies Accounting for Batch Genealogy
As an updated US FDA guidance document emphasizes, the life sciences industry needs to use data to better understand manufacturing processes and sources of variation to minimize product risk and achieve better process control in future batches (1). Lessons learned through such efforts also can be applied to future process design, extending the value of data analysis. Bioprocess manufacturers typically rely on lot traceability to determine the composition of their final manufactured products. Lot traceability is only one…
Putting All the Pieces Together
Most people in the industry are struggling with quality by design and how it relates to the acceleration of process development. Many are confused by the new FDA approach to bioprocess development, unsure of the specific implications of QbD on the CMC section of their marketing applications, and unclear how the risk-based approach applies to their particular operations. Some have trouble understanding the precise link between CQA and CPPs under a life-cycle approach and are stuck considering the exact definitions…
Sailing Through Pharmaceutical Risk Management
The New World In 2002, responding to public outrage over a series of corporate accounting scandals, the US Congress enacted a law now generally referred to as “Sarbanes–Oxley” or SOX (2). Under this law, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued regulations defining new requirements. Promulgated for misdeeds arising in the financial sector and driven by the SEC, most analysts now view this legislation as financially unifunctional. The growing complexity of business organizations, however, and the interdependency of their…
Using Innovation to Drive Competitive Advantage
Figure 1: () STOCKXPERT (WWW.STOCKXPERT.COM) After spending decades as the “sleepy†segment of the biopharmaceutical industry, vaccines are now seen as one of its highest growth segments. Major pharmaceutical companies — Novartis AG (www.novartis.com) and Pfizer, Inc. (www.pfizer.com), for example — are aggressively entering this area. Those already in it are expanding capacity and increasing business development activity. Indeed, access to the vaccines business was a major driver of Pfizer’s acquisition of Wyeth Pharmaceuticals (www.wyeth.com) (1). Several factors…
Single-Use Strategies in Bioprocessing
BioProcess International has followed, from the beginning, the ways in which single-use technologies have transformed the landscape of industrial bioprocessing. On 18 March 2009, we organized a panel session at the annual Interphex conference (Jacob Javitz Center, NYC) to drive discussion toward longer-term implications of single-use components and technologies on the future of bioprocessing. Is their use a cost-saving strategy overall? What economic factors are driving their adoption? The panelists were prepared to address such topics as economic considerations in…