Insights From Interphex
By Rob Wright
Interphex was held at the Javits Center in New York, May 1-3, 2012. The show claims to be the industry’s largest event. Given the amount of people I observed walking the show floor, as well as the number of press releases and new product announcements, I would agree — Interphex is a really big show. Three keynote speakers highlighted the agenda, two of which I had the opportunity to meet: Dr. Jeffrey Baker, Ph.D., deputy director, office of biotechnology products, center for drug evaluation and research, FDA; and Richard Smith, director of life sciences & specialty services, FedEx (NYSE: FDX). Both took time out to share industry insights as well as some personal anecdotes. Baker, who was in Life Science Leader magazine’s April 2012 cover feature, spoke on the three C’s of assuring a reliable drug supply chain (control, capability, and capacity). Smith discussed a variety of innovative cold chain solutions, stressing the importance of innovating, or as he likes to say, “Big I” innovation (disruptive) and “Little i” innovation (continuous). Speaking of innovation, a theme at nearly every show I have attended this year, Interphex had plenty of vendors with their innovations on display. What I found most interesting was the partnerships created to further innovation between vendors.
Partnering For Innovation
When I spoke with Dr. Baker of the FDA, he stressed the difference between strategic partnering and outsourcing. One of the main differences is that strategic partners have shared risk and shared reward. For example, Jerry Martin, Ph.D., SVP global scientific affairs; and Helene Pora, Ph.D., VP single-use systems, described the partnership between Pall Life Sciences (NASDAQ: PLL) and New Brunswick Scientific, an Eppendorf Company, partnered to create and supply new disposable bioreactor systems, (i.e. the XRS 20). Catarina Flyborg, general manager bioprocess products, General Electric (NYSE: GE); and Parrish Galliher, founder and CTO, Xcellerex, took the time to explain the rationale behind GE’s decision to acquire Xcellerex. Both expect the combination to be a fruitful endeavor, expanding GE’s products and services for the manufacture of recombinant proteins, antibodies, and vaccines. I also had the opportunity to meet with the North American president of Bosch Packaging Technology, Tom McDaniel; Malvern Instruments’ process systems manager, Jeff DeNigris; as well as Glenn Restivo, industry pharma manager with Siemens (NYSE: SI). All discussed a variety of innovative strategic partnerships which I look forward to elaborating on in the near future. One of the most interesting and innovative products I saw at the show resulted from the partnership between Sartorius Stedim Biotech (DIM:EN Paris) and G-CON Manufacturing. Dennis Powers, director integrated solutions for Sartorius, and David Shanahan with G-CON, literally walked me through the FlexMoSys – a flexible, single-use manufacturing pod which can be clustered together to provide portable clean room bioprocessing. The time to design and build a pod is half that of a traditional build. Because the system uses pods they are portable and can be moved around the globe, which could certainly prove useful given the continued desire to expand in emerging markets.
Facilitating Partnerships
In the spirit of innovation and strategic partnering, Life Science Leader tried something different at this year’s Interphex conference. On Monday, April 30th, we hosted an offsite roundtable program, bringing together end users, vendors, and members of our editorial advisory board to discuss industry topics and facilitate a unique networking opportunity. I moderated a discussion on a variety of subjects including, innovation, strategic partnering, and emerging markets. Interestingly, as we discussed these topics, we continued to circle back around to the important role people play in achieving all of these objectives. Feedback from the event was quite positive, and we look forward to hosting similar events at future shows.