About 10 years ago as a vice president of Avecia Biologics, I wrote an article for an early issue of BioProcess International looking ahead at likely changes in biomanufacturing (1,2,3). For the best part of the intervening period, Avecia Biologics and Diosynth slugged it out in the marketplace, each trying to grow its contract manufacturing business at the expense of the other. But in a life-altering two-year period between 2009 and 2011, both companies saw their realities and…
Facility Design/Engineering
Biopharmaceuticals On Demand
By 2016, five of the top 10 biopharmaceuticals are expected to be monoclonal antibodies (MAbs). Follow-on (biosimilar) versions of those blockbusters will most likely become available in later years due to patent expiry and the introduction of legislation for biosimilars around the world. Personalized therapies will drive the fractionation of the biopharmaceutical market, trending biomanufacturing toward smaller batch sizes and campaign-based production schemes. A growing need for flexible, multipurpose, and cost-effective manufacturing will significantly affect the design of…
The Dinosaurs Can Evolve
Barring fire, major earthquakes, or volcanic catastrophe, concrete is good for centuries — the Pantheon has been in continuous use since 126 AD. The long expected life and high initial cost of biomanufacturing buildings and equipment builds legacy into the system from the start. And the imperatives of launching a new biotechnology industry in the 1980s led to the building of many facilities within a few years to produce the first wave of recombinant DNA products. I spoke…
A Decade of Biomanufacturing
The biopharmaceutical industry is emerging from four years of economic challenge in a very healthy state. Process improvements over the past decade have played a major role in keeping the industry healthy. Earlier this decade, most companies were more concerned about quickly getting their drug products to market than about strategically controlling costs of operations. But according to my group’s recent study, this has changed in most areas of manufacturing. In fact, although this year companies reported overall…
Implementing a Fully Disposable MAb Manufacturing Facility
Biopharmaceutical contract services have seen some very important changes and growth in recent years, part of an increasing trend toward outsourcing by pharmaceutical companies both large and small. And we have seen a significant change in the types of services demanded by clients. In addition to typical services such as validation, analytical services, and training, for example, demand has increased for outsourcing of process development, mammalian cell culture, good manufacturing practice (GMP) production, and final formulation and filling.…
Ensuring Aseptic Processing Through Quality By Design
Assurance of sterility throughout drug manufacturing is paramount to patient safety. Drug products must be free of contamination from microbes, particulates, and chemicals. To that end, we see continued and increased regulatory scrutiny, with adoption of US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA) standards outside the United States and the European Union. To consistently make microbe-free products, drug manufacturers must implement robust, validated processes that include sterilizing filtration. Sterilizing-grade filtration is used in a number of…
Sustainabilty Is Good for Business
James Cerruti is senior partner of strategy and research for Brandlogic, a full-service brand consultancy that published in June its 2011 Sustainability Leadership Report: Measuring Perception vs. Reality in partnership with CRD Analytics. The report measured actual and perceived performance of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors for 100 major corporations. The report is based on a survey of key audiences who are considered to be “highly attentive” to ESG issues: investment professionals, purchasing and supply chain managers, and graduating…
Characterization and Performance of the Mobius® CellReady 200 L Bioreactor System: The next Generation of Single-Use Bioreactors
Successful bioprocessing relies on the ability to accurately and effectively monitor and control critical process parameters. The Mobius® CellReady 200 L single-use bioreactor is uniquely designed with the novel Mobius® Mobius® SensorReady technology, an external loop that enables configurable, flexible and functional monitoring and control. Bioreactor characterization properties such as mixing time, volumetric mass transfer capabilities, temperature mapping and power input define the process design space wherein accurate and effective monitoring and control can occur. Each of the aforementioned characterization…
Sustainability in Bioprocessing
The concept of sustainability has evolved over the past few decades to describe conditions for harmonious coexistence of industry and nature while meeting socioeconomic requirements of present and future generations. For this environmentally focused report, I like the simple definition offered by Armstrong International, a provider of steam, air, and hot water systems that improve utility performance, lower energy consumption, and reduce environmental emissions. According to a brochure that in part describes its work with Pfizer, Armstrong defines…
Therapies of Tomorrow Require More Than Factories from the Past
Live cells are being incorporated as active agents and delivery vehicles for a broad range of emerging therapeutic strategies. Successful commercialization of a cell therapy requires more than proving its safety and efficacy to regulators. Ultimately a therapy must be commercially viable, allowing enough patients to be treated with an adequate financial margin to justify investment in it as a product. “Whether the cells used are universal (allogeneic) or patient-specific (autologous), it is unlikely to be wholly one or the…