As the bar is raised because of increasing competition and globalization, local companies will have to produce high-quality drugs at lower prices to sustain growth.

... Victoria is exceptionally well-placed to translate research discoveries to other sectors of the economy.

It is important to always evaluate new technologies, especially those that enhance patient safety, increase productivity and reduce overall cost while still maintaining production of a high-quality product.

New Zealand's unique genetic and geological diversity is converging with its scientific expertise to create a fast-growing biotechnology industry.

The scale-up of manufacturing processes to clinical production can be complicated and expensive, with many issues to consider. This article describes some of the common and less obvious pitfalls encountered by biopharmaceutical companies when scaling up protein production processes, and how to avoid them.

Improved feedstream titres are driving a demand for increased downstream processing productivity as manufacturers seek to lower the costs of monoclonal antibodies (MAbs). The unique selectivity of protein A has enabled platform technologies for MAb purification. Platform technologies and chromatography resin improvements can help manufacturers achieve rapid and economical process development and scale-up. A multiprong approach can enable downstream process scientists to enhance productivity.

Virus safety of biotech-and plasma-derived therapeutics is ensured through complementary manufacturing and quality control measures that include the control and monitoring of raw materials, the validation and implementation of effective virus clearance technology and the monitoring of final filled product for the presence of virus. Virus filtration, which is considered a robust and effective virus clearance technology, is a common unit operation in the manufacture of biologicals. In this article, we review the points that must be considered when selecting a virus-retentive filter. The areas covered include regulatory considerations; selecting, optimizing and validating a virus filtration step; and process scale implementation — areas that are critical to users of virus filters.

Brain and heart broth is still used in path labs, but, when it comes to biopharmaceutical manufacturing, cells are having to learn to do without animal components whenever possible.

Brain and heart broth is still used in path labs, but, when it comes to biopharmaceutical manufacturing, cells are having to learn to do without animal components whenever possible.