As one might expect, single-use bioprocessing equipment was in the spotlight at Bioprocess International's annual meeting in Long Beach, California, last week.  Vendors introduced new or improved products.  However, there was also some candid discussion of the current drawbacks of existing technologies from those who use, and advocate use of, the systems.  Surprise!  Biodisposable equipment is subject to the same manufacturing-based variability that most products are prone to.  Only now, people are studying more closely the potential impacts that this variability can have on cell cultu

Hoffman-LaRoche has decided to end its relationship with PhRMA, the industry's largest and most influential lobbying group, in favor of BIO, the biotech industry organization. The move speaks volumes about not just Roche's plans for the future and how it wants to be seen and represented, but also about the ongoing shift of the industry's power base from big Pharma to biopharma.

No one is tracking pharma's social media presence better than WhyDotPharma, and the site/blog has done a nice review of which pharma companies are Twittering the most (Amgen, Boehringer, JNJ, Genentech), and how they're doing it. Some companies are using Twitter to establish a presence and get the word out on corporate news and policies, while others are using Twitter to follow and see what's being said about themselves and the industry.

Roche has begun to make cuts at Genentech, in South San Francisco and at other sites. Roche maintains that it plans to cut "little or no" manufacturing workers.

--PWT

A model which other companies may want to emulate. Genentech's Scholars Program is giving high schoolers scholarships and internships in the hopes of encouraging them to pursue life sciences professions. Would love to hear about similar programs out there . . .

--PWT

Genentech has taken a lead role in advancing the state of Quality by Design for biopharmaceuticals. At this week's BIO conference, Lynne Krummen, Genentech’s senior director of regulatory affairs, shared information on her company’s participation in FDA’s pilot program for biologics QbD.

“We are seeing an increasing frequency of inspections from FDA and the rest of the world,” says John O'Connor, PhD, senior director of Corporate Inspection Management for Genentech. “The question is, what’s the value of a duplicate inspection? We don’t believe it adds value to the product. But it costs us.”

I don’t know about you, but the relentless drum beat of negative news has been getting to me lately.  Every day seems to bring news of some drastic four-figure layoff...er, restructuring, whether in pharma or other industries.

While the term bailout is being tossed around liberally to suggest any government assistance in these challenging economic times, U.S. biotech leaders appear to asking for just that, or at least an indirect bailout. Members of major biotech companies and industry organization BIO will meet with Congress today to ask for changes in currect tax laws that would in effect open to the door to more government funding for the industry.

On Monday afternoon, a manufacturing and operations discussion group focused on the topic of global competition.  Session chair Julian Wilkins, Vice President of PharmaConsult US, Inc. and a part-time professor of Pharmaceutical Manufacturing at Stevens Institute set the stage with an introduction spelling out the issues and challenges.