Kevin Seaver, general manager, Bioprocess Automation and Digital, Bioprocess Program at Cytiva explores the digital age of bioprocessing and how manufacturers are benefitting from advancements in the sector.
Discovering and making a new drug can take up to 10 years before regulatory approval. We have an opportunity to use tools in the digital world to shrink this timeline dramatically, but our industry is slow to take advantage. This is partly due to cybersecurity concerns as well as clinical and regulatory changes, but we can mitigate risk by turning custom bioprocessing projects into products. Without this advancement, the industry will fail in its responsibility to improve human health.
Companies can mitigate some of this risk by engaging early with drug manufacturers and using laboratory and testing facilities to lay the groundwork for the complicated processes involved. Lessons learned from the labs and testing facilities can be transferred and scaled up for a full-scale manufacturing plant.