At the BPI Theater @ BIO, editor Dan Stanton conducted a series of interviews live on stage to report on the latest movements in the biomanufacturing industry to start each busy day of dealmaking in Boston. Below are the videos from conversations with David Lucchino, chairman, Mass Bio; and Mark Day, president and chief executive officer, Bioasis. Massachusetts: Secrets to Success Lucchino explains that when you have a set of companies in an area, it lays the groundwork for growth…
Welcome to this year’s focus on industry training programs. In the past three years we’ve brought this information to you in several forms: as a full supplement issue (2016), a featured report (2017) – and now this ebook. Each program that we’ve profiled offers its unique approach to training present and future biotechnologists. The best of the programs offer hands-on training with current equipment provided by supplier partners and with up-to-date approaches to documentation and regulatory requirements. Many university- and…
The quality by design (QbD) modernized approach to pharmaceutical development is intended to provide regulatory flexibility, increased development and manufacturing efficiency, and greater room to innovate as well as improve manufacturing processes within defined ranges without obtaining regulatory approval first. QbD is a systematic developmental approach that starts with a clear goal in mind and emphasizes understanding of how variability in both process and materials affects a final product (1). Historically, product quality has been assured either with end-product testing…
Analytical method transfers are essential components of the current global biotechnology environment. Analytical method transfer can be defined as “a documented process that qualifies a laboratory (the receiving laboratory) to use a validated analytical test procedure that originated in another laboratory (sending laboratory), thus ensuring that the receiving laboratory has the procedural knowledge and ability to perform the transferred analytical procedure as intended†(1). The goal is to ensure that a method continues to perform in the validated state regardless…
Over the past year, most of China’s biomanufacturing facilities have been engaged in active facility expansion. Based on our research of facilities under active construction, that growth has expanded total capacity in China by over 10%. Our research updates the Top 60 Biopharmaceutical Manufacturers in China directory from BioPlan Associates (1) and shows a continuing increase in new bioprocess capacity. This trend is unlikely to abate. As well as contacting our top 60 biomanufacturers, in fact, we contacted a number…
Even with increased understanding of host cell proteins (HCPs) and their potential risks, no practical approach has been made available for HCP risk management during bioprocess development. A BioPhorum Development Group (BPDG) team has identified common HCP-related risk factors and built a template for semiquantitative risk assessment during process development based on publicly available information. To this end, the BPDG HCP working team’s assay and knowledge-sharing experts have established a common HCP risk assessment tool and mitigation strategy to guide…
The practice of quality control is promoted by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA). A number of process control charts are used in many biopharmaceutical companies to increase production and lower process costs. Here we focus on performance of three commonly used control charts: Shewhart control charts with WECO and supplementary rules, monitoring charts with exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA), and cumulative sum (CUSUM) charts. WECO rules got the name from a quality control…
CPhI Worldwide (organized by UBM) announced last fall the final section findings of the fifth edition of the CPhI Annual Report. Presented live at the meeting in Frankfurt, Germany, the report is now available online. It highlights immediate and long-term trends in pharmaceutical data, regulation, generics, and biosimilars. Four experts gave their views. They warned that the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approach to achieving six-sigma (nearly perfect or 99.9997% defect-free) quality is failing in respect to the pharmaceutical…
Disposable materials have been used in many aspects of biomanufacturing since muromonab was first launched in 1986. Single-use stirred-tank bioreactors first became commercially available from HyClone in 2004 (1). Despite their demonstrated value to bioprocessing, disposable materials remain the subject of wide-ranging differences of opinion. Discussions of any technology are healthy and important for identifying areas for improvement, but some hearsay and bold propositions made regarding single-use components and the environment are not always helpful. Sustainability is an important and…
Host-cell proteins (HCPs) constitute a significant class of process-related impurities during biologics manufacturing. Due to their potential impact on product quality and efficacy as well as patient safety, the total amount of residual HCP in a biological drug substance generally is considered a critical quality attribute (CQA) that usually needs to be tested for during batch release (1, 2). It is both an “industrywide†common understanding and a regulatory requirement to remove HCPs from biologics to acceptably low levels that…