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Q&A with Dr E. Neil Lewis, Chief Technology Officer, Malvern Instruments
Investment in biotech R&D is reportedly now outpacing that of big pharma (PDF from Burrill Company) and is driving rapid developments across the biopharmaceuticals sector. The race to identify candidates and to produce effective biological therapeutics is intense and brings unprecedented challenges. Even with traditional small molecule drugs, the route from candidate selection through formulation and into manufacturing is often difficult to negotiate. When it comes to biologics, it may well be a journey into the unknown where, for example, traditional analytical methodologies don’t apply and where many of the rules are still being written by the regulators. Dr E Neil Lewis, chief technology officer at Malvern Instruments, leads the company’s Bioscience Development Initiative, established to work in tandem with the biotechnology and biopharmaceutical industries to rapidly identify, evaluate and deliver the new analytical technologies they need, when they need them.
What is driving the demand for new analytical techniques in biopharmaceutical development?
“Unlike chemical entities, large biological molecules cannot be delivered as powders or tablets and instead, are delivered in suspension via injection. Large biological molecules are heterogeneous in nature, and the therapeutic molecule itself may become misfolded, aggregated or denaturated. Consequently, biological materials bring a level of complexity to the development process that is simply not present for small molecule drugs. Safety and efficacy of the final product are paramount, and have been driving analytical requirements to this point. However, as the industry grows, the analytical expectations throughout the development cycle will mature. Potentially, a suite of analyses will be applied at all stages of development, evolving into the biopharmaceutical analogue to Quality by Design. This includes pre-formulation and formulation stages, where critical decisions must be made as to the likely downstream suitability of a molecule.
In this fast-moving environment, some of the biggest challenges lie in understanding not only what can be measured but what will provide meaningful predictive information as to quality, and finally anticipating what measurements you will be required to make in the future. Such dynamism is pretty exciting and is stimulating some significant scientific advances, but means that we have to keep defining and redefining the metrics, and as analytical instrument providers we have to deliver the necessary tools.”
How is Malvern addressing these challenges?
“We at Malvern believe that the traditional model of getting an analytical instrument into the hands of the people who need it, where it can take a number of years to perfect a market acceptable product, needs to be bypassed. In the rapidly changing environment of biopharmaceutical development there is a high risk that by the time an instrument developed the ‘old’ way gets to market, analytical requirements will have advanced beyond the original capabilities. The Bioscience Development Initiative has been established to encourage industry players to partner and share with us their challenges, to provide a vehicle for us to identify and target emerging technologies and to provide fast-moving, agile technology development. Our team engages on both sides of the market. We work with the end customers, those biopharmaceutical companies who have the analytical needs, as well as the leaders on the sharp edge of technology development who have a strong in-house team of scientists and engineers, and with those in small companies and academia.
We gain a real-time understanding of the biopharmaceutical industry’s needs and have the ability to access emerging technologies from a variety of sources, through in-house development, partnership, licensing and/or acquisition. We can quickly test concepts, build prototypes and take the most promising designs forward. As a result, our biopharmaceutical partners get their hands on new technologies at a much earlier stage than compared to traditional product development cycles. Their iterative feedback then shapes further development, or alternatively, will accelerate the decision to cease work on a concept that fails to deliver on its potential. Such high-level partnering allows Malvern and its affiliates to take the risks needed, to explore technologies that traditionally would appear at too early a stage for consideration, and to know quickly if these instruments will deliver the information to justify further investment. Malvern is really in the business of accelerating technology evaluation and development, quickly eliminating dead ends, and driving through those products that will provide real value to the biopharmaceutical industry as and when they need it.”
For more Q&A from Dr. Lewis including Read the full article here.
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