Biopharmaceutical Process Development

Andrew Warr

Andrew Warr [BSc (Hons) Biological Sciences (Biochemistry), 2010] gave a presentation Biopharmaceutical Process Development: Good Manufacturing Practices or Breaking Bad? during the 2015 season of CABS. At the time of the talk, Andrew was an Upstream Process Developer at Actavis Biologics. He has subsequently moved to fulfil a similar role at Oxford BioMedica.

Andy gave a fascinating insight into the production of drugs known as biologics. As the name implies, these are biological molecules manufactured in cells rather than by synthetic chemistry. This sector is emerging as an important source of new medicines (and therefore of potential careers for bioscientists). For example, many of the exciting new treatments for cancer and other diseases are based on monoclonal antibodies (when you see reports of breakthrough involving drugs whose name ends -mab these are monoclonals). Other drugs are “biosimilars”, pharmaceutical versions of naturally occurring compounds. Andy also gave some general advice for people considering working in a similar field. A transcript of his talk is available via this link.

Slides from Andrew’s presentation can be see below (and here).