From the Editor January 2012

This issue marks the beginning of BPI’s tenth volume of publication. We debated how and when to launch our tenth-anniversary year: Issue 1(1) was published in January 2003, but the magazine was actually “born” in mid-2002 with its adoption by Informa. We founding editors had six months in our 400-ft² Eugene, OR, office to build an acquisitions database, create a manuscript pipeline, and design the magazine’s first templates. (A radical idea: BPI was designed by editors, who still create all layouts and article-related graphics). Meanwhile, our publisher and first sales representative were creating the business operations and managing early qualification of our readership at the Informa office in Westborough, MA. In one of the most creative periods I’ve ever experienced, we thrived on close editorial and sales relationships that have characterized our operations ever since.

Before settling on a real name for the magazine, we called it “Bio-X,” a play on the “GXP” label for good regulatory practices. So our anniversary logo, with its big “X” for our tenth volume may be a sort of in-joke, but it also reinforces our appreciation of the progress we’ve made. Some technologies (e.g., disposables) have radically changed bioprocessing; others, have become less high-profile than they were a decade ago.

Two ambitious launches in 2012 will help us celebrate our midyear anniversary: The first is our “mobile app,” which becomes available with this issue, free to all qualified print subscribers (you’ll need the subscription number from your label to download it). This format doesn’t simply reproduce the printed page digitally. All URLs and emails become live links, and ads (and graphic elements, down the road) can be linked to additional materials, video product demos, posters, and voice-over narration. Readers can explore links and return immediately to where they were in the text rather than searching for where they left off. We remain thoroughly committed to print, but this opens up possibilities for travelers (for example) and for increased international circulation wherever it is less cost-effective to mail hardcopies. Your feedback will be essential to making this new resource the most useful tool we can make it.

Also, you can read in our Spotlight section this month about our Decade of BioProcess Awards program. Rather than praise BPI itself over much, we are celebrating advances in the industry that we’ve covered over the past decade. As this month’s upstream focus shows, we will highlight evolving perceptions, technologies, and business models in each issue this year. And we look forward to your nominations.

BPI may sometimes be a bit over-ambitious, but we would rather take a few risks than play it safe — a reflection of the biopharmaceutical industry itself, a place for people who are unafraid to “work without a net.” To all our readers, advertisers, and advisors: We thank you whole-heartedly for your support. And we look forward to celebrating what you accomplish and helping you realize your future goals.