Many thanks to everyone who made this year's BioProcess International Conference and Exhibition a great success! Over 1,500 participants enjoyed a rich combination of technical workshops, keynote presentations, and focused tracks on manufacturing efficiency & supply chain security, scaling up, cell culture and upstream processing, and recovery and purification. More than 90 posters were presented representing all four technical tracks and the co-located Formulations conference; and training courses provided a complementary series of presentation choices.

"A must-attend annual conference for biopharmaceutical industry!"
- Jinyou Zhang, Ph.D., Associate VP, Process Development & Manufacturing, Immunomedics, Inc.

"This is a one-stop, non-stop conference. You can personalize your day by selecting presentations from two different tracks with an option to gain more knowledge by visiting the exhibit hall, reading posters, attending training, and taking a tour of a local manufacturing plant."
- Rebecca Bartkus, Development Engineer, Millipore

"I found the conference timely and worthwhile, with plenty of opportunities for productive networking."
- Ned Watson, Principal R&D Scientist, Media Component Research, SAFC Biosciences

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Post Show Wrap Report

by S. Anne Montgomery

Themes and Thoughts
Held in October at the Raleigh Convention Center in Raleigh, North Carolina, the 2009 BioProcess International Conference and Exhibition offered attendees a chance to hear sessions that reflected the state of the industry, as well as numerous networking opportunities throughout this week long event. This year, conference sessions had a strong focus on future trends and innovations with process design, development, and manufacturing.

Recurring themes at this year's conference included the future of flexible manufacturing, ways to integrate upstream and downstream processing, broader applications of singleuse technologies, optimizing/shortening the downstream processing steps and the future place(s) of automation in bioprocess development and manufacturing.

Single-Use Discussions Continue
In sessions covering disposables implementation, it is clear that such technologies are now well-established as tools for process development. One topic that emerged was the challenge of validating them, especially as they are developed for larger-scale steps. The relationship of single-use technology to development of flexible approaches to manufacturing may certainly help companies achieve necessary flexibility. Guenter Jagschies (GE Healthcare) pointed out to us that quality by design (QbD) approaches will be key toward developing the knowledge needed to achieve that greater flexibility -- and more freely to change and transfer processes.

Disruptive Technologies
Another theme underlying this year's BPI Conference was the continued development and sophistication of automated technologies. But how much automation is making its way into processing, and what is realistic to expect down the road? Automated options may help create some of those technologies termed disruptive by a number of speakers and highlighted in a session chaired by James M. Robinson (Novavax, Inc.). Such technologies could render traditional, familiar approaches obsolete. Examples include cell-free production (highlighted in a provocative talk by Henry Heinsohn of Sutro Biopharma, Inc.), cell culture perfusion with sequential multicolumn chromatography, and a 100% single-use vaccine facility that would facilitate construction of an in-border vaccine solution for far-flung areas of the globe.

The Exhibition
The exhibit hall allowed attendees not only to meet with exhibitors and colleagues, but also to participate in featured discussion groups on assigned topics, such as Flexible Manufacturing Facilities, HealthCare Reform, QBD, Disposables and Sensors, Raw Materials, Sub-Visible Particle Characterization and Extractables and Leachables. Attendee Alex Kanarek attended the Flexible Manufacturing Facilities discussion group and said the main topic was the use of presterilized disposable components to provide maximum flexibility, especially in pilot and small-scale plants. He noted that there were a number of people who saw the need to make the older, static stainless-steel plants more flexible, probably by the use of more platform technologies and thus creating dedicated skids, running one particular platform, which could be inserted into the flow as necessary.