tech talk
possible, regardless of their
locations. The site is located in
west India within 70-80 km from
multiple international ports, and
is situated in one of the most
industrialized states in the
country. While the site services
Avantor’s global customers, its
location is also advantageous for
Indian pharmaceutical customers,
95 percent of which are located in
western and southern India.
Our Panoli facility is one of the
three global cGMP manufacturing
sites operated by Avantor using
the company’s proven quality
standards and processes. Avantor
is one of the few companies in our
space with in-house excipient
manufacturing capabilities for
producing multi-compendial
cGMP excipients.
What are the major reasons
behind biosuppliers setting up
cGMP enabled manufacturing
setups outside Europe/US?
A majority 80 percent of the
world’s population resides outside
of Europe and North America.
Meeting their healthcare needs in
a high-quality and cost-effective
manner is driving pharmaceutical
companies to set up operations
closer to their patients. This is
especially true in the Asia Pacific
region, which has a large patient
base (60 percent of the world’s
population). The economies of
scale offered in the region lead to
cost-effective drugs, which can
help reduce healthcare costs in
the developing and developed
world. As an example, one out of
three OTC drugs in North
America are made by Indian
generic manufacturers.
The South Asia including India
region is uniquely positioned to
become a global player because it
has clear-cut regulatory
30
BioVoiceNews | October 2016
“
The South
Asia
including India
region is uniquely
positioned to
become a global
player because it
has clear-cut
regulatory
guidelines for
biologics and
vaccines, offers a
highly skilled
workforce, and
has R&D and a
manufacturing
infrastructure.
guidelines for biologics and
vaccines, offers a highly skilled
workforce, and has R&D and a
manufacturing infrastructure that
is on par with the most advanced
countries in the world. Fast-paced
clearances for greenfield and
brownfield projects are
important, as are the world-class
institutes and universities
available in the region.
Avantor has proactively
positioned itself to support the
above trends by creating a cGMP
manufacturing and commercial
infrastructure in the region, which
ensures that we are developing,
testing and selling relevant
products in the region.
Which are the new innovative
products that Avantor has
come up to boost biopharmaceutical
manufacturing? How do you
view the global trends?
The biopharmaceutical industry is
crossing traditional dividing lines,
as innovators are developing
branded generics, and small
molecule manufacturers are
moving into biosimilars. CROs
and CMOs are springing up to
take advantage of scale, and
generic manufacturers are moving
up the value curve by launching
innovator drugs. All these trends
are being driven by the growing
need for cost-effective, highquality healthcare. Plus, most of
the top 50 innovator drugs are
going off patent in the next five
years, spurring launch plans for
hundreds of biosimilars.
Avantor’s new products are very
well positioned to address the
key needs of our customers in
this setting.
Our J T Baker HPLE sugars have
demonstrated very low endotoxin
levels, in addition to high purity,
making them attractive excipients
for vaccines and other critical
drugs. The sugars also reduce API
degradation, which enhances cost
effectiveness. J T Baker HPLE
sugars are now being
manufactured in our state-of-theart cGMP manufacturing plant in
Panoli, India.
Avantor’s protein purification
resins are multi-modal in nature,
which reduces the need for an
additional step in purification;
therefore, our resins increase
yield (yield gets reduced in every
successive step, so avoiding steps