Manufacturing Contract Services

Capacity Analysis for Viral Vector Manufacturing: Is There Enough?

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Advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs) are engineered to replace defective, disease-causing genes to compensate directly for a genetic defect or to encode a therapeutic protein construct (e.g., chimeric antigen receptor, CAR) for disease treatment. In most instances, a viral vector delivers the engineered genetic payload, targeting cells in situ or ex vivo through cellular modification, expansion, and infusion into a patient. Clinical successes of ATMPs bolstered by regulatory approval of products such as Luxturna (voretigene neparvovec-rzyl, Spark Therapeutics), Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel,…

December 17, 2019

The Road to Commercialization: A Commercial CDMO’s Perspective

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Richard Richieri, chief operation officer (COO) of Avid Bioservices, recently presented an Avid case study and strategy to design, prepare, and execute process validation in preparation for successful product approval inspections. The goals of the presentation were to share lessons about some of the strengths learned from Avid’s experience and to offer advice on industry best practices. Finding a CMO that meets your quality expectations and scale is a key driver for your eventual commercial success. Particularly, working with CMO…

December 10, 2019

Bioprocess Intensification – Fast, Flexible, and Efficient Solutions

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Propelled by single-use systems (SUSs), biopharmaceutical companies are approaching the ideal of continuous bioprocessing. In addition to improving process integrity and decreasing production costs, SUSs have enabled exciting ways to configure, operate, and evaluate manufacturing steps. Sensitive process analytical technologies (PATs) and discriminating data analysis platforms are supplementing those developments, helping process engineers and operators to study and modify workflows in unprecedented ways. The goal now is to intensify: to apply increasingly nuanced process knowledge and growing technological capability in…

November 21, 2019

Streamlining the Path to Clinical Manufacturing

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Careful consideration of lot size is crucial for multiyear success of a cell therapy business. RoosterBio’s product design and acceleration business works with the company’s customers to help make plans that are appropriate for their stages of product and clinical development. We use the following major considerations in creating a sound multiyear strategy with intermediate milestones: Understand what the future looks like and work backward Use reasonable to conservative assumptions to estimate a range of needs Invest in the right…

October 21, 2019

CMC Development Platforms and Outsourcing to Reduce Timelines

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Forty Seven is a company developing novel therapies based on anti-CD47 and other immuno-oncologies. CD47 is called the “don’t eat me” signal that cancer cells give out to escape elimination by the body’s immune system. Qinghai Zhao, vice president of technical development and manufacturing, is one of the scientists working on the company’s magrolimab (5F9) monoclonal antibody that is designed to block the binding of the CD47 signal to the cell receptor SIRP-α while boosting the “eat me” signal that…

October 21, 2019

Biopharmaceutical Growth in China: Bioprocessing Challenges Are Creating CMO Opportunities

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In the past decade, the world has seen rapid growth of more than 15% in China’s biopharmaceutical market (1). According to the second edition of BioPlan’s Advances in Biopharmaceutical Technology in China, the most populous country in the world — with the largest patient groups — has a growing economy with its GDP second only to that of the United States. Rapid urbanization and greater access to national healthcare insurance puts China in second place after the United States for…

September 21, 2019

Worldwide Biopharmaceutical CMO Capacity Analysis

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Contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs) are a core part of the biopharmaceutical industry, with commercial manufacturing making up about a third of marketed products. Here we examine worldwide CMO biopharmaceutical manufacturing (bioprocessing) capacity, concentrating on “mainstream” CMOs — defined as those providing primarily mammalian cell culture or microbial fermentation services for manufacture at any scale of proteins and antibodies. This analysis follows our recent article examining worldwide bioprocessing capacity status and trends (1). Survey Methodology The 2018 15th Annual Report and…

February 14, 2019

A Multistep Research Protocol to Develop and Implement Validated Guidelines for CMO RFI and RFP Processes: Biopharmaceutical Vendor Evaluation and Selection Minimum Standards (BioVesel)

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Pursuant to the proposal for validated minimum standards for biopharmaceutical contract manufacturing organization (CMO) request-for-information (RFI) and request-for-proposal (RFP) processes (biopharmaceutical vendor evaluation and selection minimum standards, BioVesel) (1), we propose herein a multistep research protocol to develop and implement the BioVesel standards. This proposal is intended as a basis for discussion among mulitple stakeholders. Detailed research protocols for each proposed stage in the development and implementation of BioVesel will be drafted and published separately. The context of the proposed…

December 14, 2018

Proposing a Systematic QbD Approach Toward Validated Guidelines for CMO RFI and RFP Processes: Biopharmaceutical Vendor Evaluation and Selection Minimum Standards (BioVesel)

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Three major concerns predominate biotechnology executive management in organizations of all sizes and above all other risks: finance (or its absence at critical moments), technological performance, and failures in coordination. Some business functions, such as human resources (HR), are effectively siloed horizontally and therein are more likely to be susceptible to only one of those risks (1). Few functions are subject to this trinity of risks simultaneously; all functions may be exposed to failures in internal coordination, and a smaller…

October 15, 2018

Worldwide Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing Capacity Analysis: Growth Continues Across the Board

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While the growth in biopharmaceutical manufacturing capacity in developed, major market countries is continuing its slow and steady climb, developing regions often are seeing double that growth rate. Over the past eight years, as detailed in the “About the Data” box, our company’s index of the top 1,000 biomanufacturing facilities (1) has tracked and ranked bioprocessing facilities worldwide in terms of known or estimated bioprocessing capacity (cumulative onsite bioreactor volume) number of biological products manufactured at clinical scale commercial scale…

September 15, 2018