Editor’s note: Joe Magno is executive director of the North Carolina Center of Innovation Network.
RALEIGH – Over 150 life science executives gathered just a few days ago to hear from top biomanufacturing executives and leaders and kicked off what could be referred to as “North Carolina Life Sciences Week.” The first event was hosted by the North Carolina Center of Innovation Network (COIN) and the North Carolina Biotech Center (NCBC) during which panelists shared with the attendees, not only information on their organizations but also their thoughts regarding the challenges faced by the state’s biomanufacturing industry, present and future.
The Forum was intended to highlight the fact that the state’s biomanufacturing facilities employ a significant proportion of North Carolina’s 63,000 life sciences workers and impacts over 260,000 other workers in related industries. It also pointed out that in the next few years the biomanufacturing industry has committed over $3 billion to the development of new infrastructure that will require thousands of skilled biomanufacturing employees to work in these new advanced manufacturing facilities being built in North Carolina.
Panelists included Rebecca Holland New, the Group Vice President for Global Business Management and Enterprise Operations for Patheon, a Thermo Fischer Scientific company, Sergi Roura, the North American Facilities President of Grifols, Carnley Norman, the Vice President of Manufacturing at KBI Biopharma, and Ruben Carbonell, the Chief Technology Officer for NIIMBL, The National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals.
The consistent thread of the conversation centered around the continuing need of the industry for skilled, experienced, and qualified workers which was easily understood given the strong growth of the biomanufacturing sector in North Carolina driven by the growing global need for quality lifesaving medicines.
The speakers recognized the years of significant contributions made by organizations such as NC State University’s Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center (BTEC), the North Carolina BioImpact Program that combines the resources of North Carolina’s university and community college systems to meet the growing demands of the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, and the other organizations including NCBC, and NC Bio to meet their expanding needs. However, they indicated that the continuing growth of the industry and evolution of biomanufacturing processes, is placing new demands on their workforce that is driving the need for continual education. They also pointed out that their companies’ continuing large investments in North Carolina, which is the 3rd largest cluster of biomanufacturing facilities in the US, is placing additional pressure on the State’s workforce development systems.
Ruben Carbonell discussed NIIMBL, a national multi-million dollar, public/private effort to develop innovative approaches to accelerate medical progress by fostering technology development, best practices and standards that bolster biopharmaceutical manufacturing innovation, as the Federal Government and industry response to the growing needs described by the speakers. Dr. Carbonell stated that “as an Institute of Manufacturing USA, NIIMBL seeks to restore U.S. preeminence in manufacturing by addressing shared manufacturing technology and workforce challenges”.
Rebecca Holland New stated that Patheon launched more than 110 new products in 2016 and in 2017 had more than 140 new products in tech transfer, and Sergi Roura announced the acquisition of over 400 acres of land in Clayton to support future growth of their existing facilities.
