Bristol Myers Squibb’s Director of Business Operations for MSAT, Carl Allenspach, Highlights Collaboration and Interactive Exchange at INTERPHEX

Pharmaceutical Technology® spoke with Carl Allenspach, director of business operations, manufacturing, science, and technology organization at Bristol Myers Squibb about expectations and significant benefits to be gained at this year’s INTERPHEX, to be held at the Javits Center in New York City on April 16–18, 2024.

Allenspach’s background includes solids formulation and processing, with more than 20 years of experience in formulation development. Much of his experience involved hands-on work with equipment, operations, and processes formulations. Allenspach has also moved into the biologics space, gaining exposure to biologics drug substance, drug product, and packaging.

About this year’s INTERPHEX, Allenspach remarks on the addition of scientific-focused sessions, stating that, “INTERPHEX is well known and established for bringing in an impressive array of pharma vendors—covering all aspects of the industry. So, attendees already go there to meet with the vendors to see the new equipment, the new materials, and processes that are available. So, adding on the scientific content really adds another aspect to the meeting. The [meeting] brings in an international audience because of the location; it's a place where scientists can collaborate and exchange ideas.”

“By adding in this—the learning lab that INTERPHEX is offering—it's going to give [attendees] this curated scientific content that the attendees will really be able to benefit from—getting the information on these technologies, processes, regulatory changes—that they can then bring back and utilize in their daily life,” he adds.

The collaborative spirit at INTERPHEX offers the opportunity for experts from different fields to meet and engage, which significantly helps accelerate different innovations as well, Allenspach points out. “We hope that attendees will gain some actionable strategies that they'll be able to apply. I think everybody that attends a conference goes in there with some problem that they're having, something that they want to know more about, and [most of the time] by talking to the other people there and by listening to presentations, by asking questions … I've taken something back that I've benefited from. So … we really hope most people who go there get inspired from listening to some of these talks, and they're going to leave with some excitement and enthusiasm that will be able to give them a boost in their career,” he explains.