Investment in biotech R&D is reportedly now outpacing that of big pharma (http://www.burrillandco.com/content/news/PR-BIO-2013-4-16-13-final.pdf ) 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.