ARTICLES BY MATTHEW PILLAR

• Temperature & Containment Controls In ADC Manufacturing

  7/19/2024

  During a Bioprocess Online Live discussion with leaders from a couple of biotechs with Phase 1 ADC assets in the clinic, an audience member asked questions about OEB (occupational exposure bands) and managing the elevated temperatures required of ADC conjugation. We couldn't address them on the call, but here are some resources that might be helpful.

• Antibodies, Linkers, An Uber, And John Wick

  6/28/2024

  The challenges faced by ADC developers after a hundred-year history with the basic concept of the drug makes the recent billion-dollar bets on the modality look all the more dramatic. What gives? Where’s all this confidence coming from? It's not the antibody. It's not the payload. It's the linker.

• Scale And Sustainability In Single-Use Systems

  6/13/2024

  I had the opportunity to cover a lot of ground on considerations for single-use technologies in biopharmaceutical manufacturing with Mark Petrich, Ph.D. when he joined me as a guest expert on the Bioprocess Online Live event Single Use Technologies For Bioprocessing: An Essential Update. Here are some of his insights on single-use scale and lifecycle management.

• Where's The Case For Generative AI In Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing?

  6/12/2024

  The early use cases for AI in the biopharmaceutical industry—at least, the early public use cases—have largely come from R&D, and more specifically, target identification and molecular design. Where are the use cases in biologics manufacturing, supply chain management, QMS, and operations, and what’s holding us back?

• Bioprocessing Technology: You Are The Standard

  5/21/2024

  Single-use bioprocessing equipment engineer and expert Paul Priebe has some advice for you. Next time you catch yourself questioning an equipment standard (or the lack thereof), take a good look in the mirror. 

• 7 Bioprocess Intensification Strategies

  4/23/2024

  “Process intensification” is one of those big umbrella terms that unfairly implies a concept that comes with an instruction manual. It doesn’t. It isn’t prescriptive. It doesn’t have to start in a specific place, and it really never ends.

• Single Use In Biopharma: Beyond Savings & Sustainability

  4/17/2024

  SUT continues to trend in biopharmaceutical applications, driven largely by environmental and economic considerations. But there’s a lot more to the SUT story, including supply chain and standardization advantages. We dove headlong into those issues and more with independent SUT expert Paul Priebe and Krystal Biotech VP of Technical Operations Mark Petrich.

• Eying Up The Era Of Topical Biologics

  3/19/2024

  Claris Bio’s phase 1/2 clinical trial in patients with Stage 2 or 3 Neurotrophic Keratitis (NK) is breaking new ground in the development of topically administered biologic therapies. 

• Doubling Down On Biopharma's Growing Skills Drought

  3/13/2024

  The biopharmaceutical industry is building manufacturing capacity at breakneck speed. According to PhRMA, there are 1,580-and-counting biopharma manufacturing facilities in the U.S. alone. Problem is, we're way short on filling those facilities with skilled labor. NIIMBL wants to change that. Here's how, and a great opportunity for big pharma, biotech sponsors, CDMOs, academics, and more to help.

• Debra Weiss, RN: Big Impact In Small, Non-Profit Bio

  3/8/2024

  The career of Debra Weiss, RN, MSN, and COO at the biopharma Gates Medical Research Institute (Gates MRI), offers a case study in creating success through service-oriented leadership.

• U.S. Biotech Is In For A Protracted Divorce From China

  2/21/2024

  The U.S. imported $6.95 billion worth of pharmaceuticals from China in 2022. That was 8x the amount we imported in 2021. A proposed Act of Congress puts that supply, and U.S. biotech itself, in serious peril.

• 1 In 300 People In The U.S. Is Living With HIV. That's Not Okay With Jeff Galvin.

  2/12/2024

  By modifying CD4 T cells using miRNA, Jeff Galvin’s company thinks it can deliver a functional cure for HIV. Here’s the ongoing story of Addimmune and its unique clinical strategy.

• 3 Things You Didn't Hear Coming Out Of JPM

  2/6/2024

  You’ve heard San Francisco was buzzing with cautious optimism last month. You’ve seen the M&A activity that’s buoying spirits and you know inflation and interest rates are stabilizing, if not improving. You may not have considered these three trendlines, offered by a guy who spent his time at JPM doing more listening than anything. 

• Legal And IP Protection For New Biotechs

  10/31/2023

  Want to ensure you've got your biotech legal, IP, and patent bases covered? Join Business of Biotech host Matt Pillar and BlueSphere Bio CEO and biotech legal expert Keir LoIacono on 11/13 for the live, interactive, and FREE digital event Legal And IP Protection For New Biotechs. 

• Tech-Heavy Drug Discovery Yields Deep Pipeline

  8/3/2023

  Recursion Cofounder and CEO, Chris Gibson, Ph.D. is creating a map of human biology comparable to Google’s ongoing effort to map every street on the planet. He shared why that's so important, and how it's informing Recursion's rapid drug discovery efforts.

• Engineering Antibodies In A Box?

  7/27/2023

  Machines aren’t smart enough to engineer optimal, disease-specific antibodies without data that’s properly generated, captured, and structured. That’s why LabGenius Founder Dr. James Field says the key to success is neither human-derived data, nor machine-enabled design. It’s the organizational engineering feat of bringing the two together.

• Why RNA Is Good For Business

  7/3/2023

  Early last year, Nutcracker Therapeutics landed a $170 million Series C to further its work developing an RNA drug development platform. Learn how scientist-turned Chief Business Officer Geoff Nosrati is lifting the company above the cacophony of companies rallying around the therapeutic potential of RNA.

• Key Biomanufacturing Ingredient In Short Supply

  6/26/2023

  Biopharma supply chains and manufacturing capacity are on the comeback trail, but one of the key requirements for sustainable development and manufacturing success remains elusive. NIIMBL Workforce Director John Balchunas shares perspective from a unique vantage point.

• Where Oncology Drug Discovery Goes Next

  5/30/2023

  AbbVie Bay Area Site Head and VP of Oncology Discovery Research Steve Davidsen, Ph.D. lays out the primary challenges to pushing forward in areas of high, unmet oncological need: accelerating discovery to shorten the time to patient impact and identifying optimal patients for a given mechanism of action or molecule.

• Immunome's Platform Partnership Potential

  5/16/2023

  Immunome’s discovery engine caught AbbVie’s eye, nabbing the biotech a transformative deal. CEO Purnanand Sarma, Ph.D. and CFO Corleen Roche take us behind the scenes.

• Active ADC Space Challenges Development Strategies

  5/15/2023

  Payload and linker technology advances have contributed to an explosion in antibody-drug conjugate development in recent years, amd the funding has followed. But, while the face value of ADC activity represents a bright spot in an otherwise sluggish biotech investment environment, the challenges of doing business in a hotly competitive market are playing out.

• Anatomy Of A Biopharma VC Deal

  4/20/2023

  Why does a venture capitalist choose to fund a biopharma company? What prompts them to choose not to? And why should (or shouldn't) a biopharma company take a VC's money?

• Topical Biologics In Ophthalmology?

  3/21/2023

  A recent clinical study of an eyedrop formulated with Grifols’ Immunoglobulin-based Flebogamma DIF offers cause for optimism among multiple stakeholders. It could become the first-approved topically administered biologic therapy for dry eye disease. 

• AAV Manufacturing Field: An Interactive Look

  3/17/2023

  Mapping the adeno-associated virus (AAV) therapeutic space gives us a glimpse into indication priorities for gene therapy, and a look at whose got their fingers in which partners’ pots. Check out this interactive graphic from DeciBio Principal Carl Schoellhammer, Ph.D. It's not only instructive, its kind of therapeutic to play with. 

• Cashing In On Biopharma Collaboration

  3/14/2023

  How does a biopharma business that’s potentially years away from its first shot at therapeutic sales revenue thrive in a high-inflation, high-interest, supply-constrained business environment?