News from Europe's pharmaceutical manufacturing industry coupled with upcoming events, and exclusive articles and interviews from industry experts. WEEKLY
The second annual Pharmaceutical Technology Bioprocessing Survey offers a snapshot of the industry following 2009's megamergers.This article contains online-exclusive bonus material.
Mar 1, 2010 By:
Michelle Hoffman Pharmaceutical Technology
Volume 34
Figure 10: Vaccine production systems used by respondents.
We asked respondents to tell us about the innovations that have most improved their processes in the past year, and what they
hope to see in the future. Respondents said that disposables in various forms had improved their processes. Single-use sensors,
bioreactors, chromatography columns, and filters were mentioned repeatedly. Respondents look forward to more improvements
and innovations in single-use technologies to enhance product quality and process efficiencies. In addition, they are looking
for manufacturers to create analytics that can discern the disposition of glycans on proteins and processes that allow better
control of protein glycosylation, better contamination identification and detection methods, improvements in affinity resins
for protein purification, improvements in cell-based expression systems, and improved analytics for determining protein structural
information.
Survey Participants
Figure 11: Biopharmaceutical manufacturing focus of respondents (multiple answers allowed).
Three-hundred-and-eighty-four respondents completed the survey this year. About 79% were male, aged 45 on average, and represented
an average number of 17 years professional experience. At 48%, the largest number come from the United States (including Puerto
Rico), followed by 26% from Western Europe, 7% from India, 6% from Asia other than India or China, and 2% from Canada. Thirty-one
percent indicated their companies were innovator pharmaceutical companies producing branded drugs, 28% were from biotech companies,
10% were from contract manufacturers, and 7% were from generic companies. The rest represent consultants, consumer healthcare
companies and suppliers of raw materials, equipment and machinery. About 20% are in research, and another 19% are in process
development. Sixteen percent are in production management, 14% are in quality assurance and control and 5% are concerned with
regulatory affairs. The remainder are consultants or perform some other job function. Their companies' average revenue is
$10 billion.
