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VertX Bioprocess Conference convenes biotech and biopharma leaders to accelerate industry collaboration

Thermo Fisher Scientific

Thermo Fisher Scientific's forum focuses on strategies to expedite biotherapeutic development and commercialization

14 Oct 2019
Arran Tabary-Davies
Microbiologist

Industry news

To discuss the future strategies of biologics development and commercialization, Thermo Fisher Scientific hosted the inaugural vertX Bioprocess Conference on Thursday, September 26 at the Scripps Seaside Forum in La Jolla, California.

Industry leaders and subject matter experts from biopharma and biotech companies were invited by Thermo Fisher to engage in the discussion and network with peers, as well as attend sessions focused on accelerating speed to market, lessons from past commercialization challenges, innovation and navigating the regulatory landscape.
"We are in an era of significant growth and innovation for biologic medicines," said Cory Stevenson, president of bioproduction at Thermo Fisher. "With the volume of molecules in development, for both traditional and new modalities, we wanted to give biotech and biopharma leaders the opportunity to exchange ideas and approaches with the aim of driving greater success across our industry."

The event opened with remarks by Brandon Pence, vice president and general manager, purification and pharma analytics at Thermo Fisher, followed by a keynote speech from a cancer survivor on winning the battle against cancer. In the keynote, Matthew Moon, one of the first people in the world to receive Universal Chimeric Antigen Receptor T Cells, shared his journey to recovery from Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia through the ground-breaking treatment.

Designed to provide a variety of educational content as well as facilitate discussions for biopharma and biotech companies in early phase development, the forum held discussions on a range of critical topics, including outsourcing strategies, digitalization and automation in bioprocessing, evolving trends in biologic modality manufacturing platforms and navigating regulatory reviews. One customer, Lei Robinson, Ph.D., manager GMP process development, Sorrento Therapeutics, summarized the event saying, "vertX was a great opportunity to learn so much across a variety of topics in a one-day conference. I look forward to attending next year."

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