Amgen’s next generation
biomanufacturing facility
Kimball Hall, Vice President
of Manufacturing and site head at Amgen Singapore Manufacturing Pte. Ltd. will
be presenting at Bioprocess International’s 2015 Conference and Exhibition in Octoberon “Amgen’s next generation biomanufacturing facility”.
The facilities smaller,
modular design will allow it to be readily replicated for future facilities in
order to increase capacity while expanding the company’s global network and
reach. It will heavily utilize single-use technologies including bioreactors up
to 2000L in scale. Also
of interest is Amgen’s choice to make use of continuous processing steps which is a topic I’ve covered in this blog previously.
Next gen facility saves time
and money
The approach that Amgen has
adopted is set to save the company money. In a recent interview Kimball was
quoted as saying Amgen’s “next-generation biomanufacturing require ¼ of the
capital costs, 1/3 of the operating expense; and half of the construction time”
(Inside Look at Amgen’s Next-Gen Biomanufacturing by Denice Cabel).
The environmental impact of
single-use technologies
Interestingly, Amgen considers
the use of disposable technology as being more environmentally friendly than
traditional stainless steel plants. This for many is counterintuitive as they
see the single-use technologies made from plastics as part of a throwaway
culture but they neglect to consider the considerable energy and water
requirements needed to produce the clean steam, WFI and cleaning solutions that
are required to prevent contaminations in reusable bioprocessing equipment.
Global supply chain networks
are becoming increasingly important as was highlighted in last week’s post on final fill finish operations. Interestingly the trend to
develop these networks is driving innovation and the adoption of novel
technologies.
Have your say
Singapore has a significant
cluster of biomanufacturing facilities and is important on the global stage.
Where do you see the next big hub developing?
Join me at #BPIconf
Contact me at nick.hutchinson@parker.com
Dr Nick Hutchinson has a Masters and Doctorate in
Biochemical Engineering from University College London, UK where he focused on
laboratory tools for rapid bioprocess development and characterization. He then
worked at Lonza Biologics in an R&D function investigating novel methods
for large-scale antibody purification before moving to an operational role
scaling-up and transferring manufacturing processes between Lonza sites in the
UK, Spain and USA. Nick now works in Market Development at Parker domnick
hunter where his focus is in bringing Parker's strengths in Motion &
Control to Bioprocessing. This will enable customers to improve the quality and
deliverability of existing and future biopharmaceuticals.
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