For the on-demand virtual BPI Theater at the Biotechnology Innovation Organization’s annual convention, BioProcess Insider founding editor Dan Stanton conducted a series of interviews to discuss trends in biomanufacturing. Here, we summarize his conversations with Felix Hsu, chief commercial and chief business officer at WuXi Advanced Therapies. WuXi Advanced Therapies has served the cell and gene therapy industry as a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) for nearly two decades. When speaking with BioProcess Insider’s Dan Stanton, Hsu reflected on…

For the on-demand, virtual BPI Theater at the Biotechnology Innovation Organization’s annual convention, BioProcess Insider founding editor Dan Stanton conducted a series of interviews to discuss trends in biomanufacturing. Here, we summarize his conversation with Steve Burton, chief executive officer of Astrea Bioseparations. Astrea Bioseparations (formerly Prometic Bioseparations) is eager to expand in the wake of its acquisition by Gamma Biosciences, a platform for life-sciences tools and a subsidiary of KKR. Burton explained that before the acquisition, his company felt…

Richard Richieri, chief operations officer, Avid Bioservices Avid has manufactured biologics since the early 1990s. Its early phase and late-phase projects (including commercial biologics) are approved in 90 countries. The company uses 2,000-L single-use bioreactors (three units), two 1,000-L bioreactors, and a few smaller ones, all in single-use configurations. Avid is expanding and will add six 2,000-L single-use bioreactors to its facility. Richieri spoke about the road to biologics commercialization from Avid’s perspective as a contract development and manufacturing organization…

Mario Kraft, head of process development, AGC Biologics Kraft leads AGC’s process development team at a site in Heidelberg, Germany. He spoke about his company’s focus on plasmid DNA manufacturing and about how AGC supports its clients’ projects. The company has an established platform production process “toolbox system” for customized manufacturing of high-quality–grade plasmids for both good manufacturing practice (GMP) and non-GMP applications. With the explosion of interest in cell and gene therapies and with their improving clinical success, increased…

Moderator Dan Stanton, with Magnus Schroeder and Daniel P. Slone In the biopharmaceutical industry, manufacturing partners always have served as more than mere suppliers. But they increasingly are expanding their technologies and capabilities with the goal of offering end-to-end services. In this online panel for the 2020 BIO conference, Dan Stanton asked Magnus Schroeder and Daniel P. Slone, both vice presidents at major contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs), “how manufacturers put the D in CDMO” and how biologics development…