8 GHP / Q3 2018 , Uniquely Comprehensive Service Biopharma Group is a leading supplier of equipment and services to the pharmaceutical, biotech, process and food production industries for freeze drying, solvent removal, high pressure homogenisation technologies and industry related processing equipment. We profiled the firm as we looked to discover more about their innovative ways. With divisions in the UK, France, Ireland and USA, Biopharma Group is a leading supplier of equipment and services to the pharmaceutical, biotech, process and food production industries for freeze drying, solvent removal, high pressure homogenisation technologies and industry related processing equipment. In addition to equipment sales and service, they also have a consultancy division providing independent R&D, lyo-analysis, process development services, training courses and analytical instrumentation to the global customer base. Together with their knowledge of freeze drying, they offer a uniquely comprehensive service, including consultancy packages, covering all aspects of freeze-drying from pre-formulation through to full-scale production and dried product analysis. Biopharma Group’s aim is to meet the precise needs of their customers’ projects appropriate to the size and stage of the project, whether this be a single cycle run, individual analysis or a complete formulation development programme. The firm’s philosophy is to augment their customers in-house expertise and work together to make each project a success. As for how the team at Biopharma Group ensure the highest standards of cleanliness are maintained throughout their production lines, in the build of the equipment they supply, most works are conducting at the product principals factories. As such, their analytical instruments are built in a separate area away from the lab, and are installed by their own engineers in order not to cause any cross- contamination. With regard to their R&D and analysis lab, working within such a regulated industry and, on occasion, with either valuable and/or delicate samples, they ensure compliance to the ISO 9001 standards, H&S standards, CHAS safe contractor accreditations and their sister company, Crowthorne Hi-Tec Services ensures that all their cleanroom related work, such as in our cytotoxics suite passes regulations. Moving onto Biopharma Group’s products, these include the analytical instruments that they have both designed and developed with the improved user experience and ease of use as the driving objective. Biopharma Group is at the forefront of analytical instrument technology developments having launched the most advanced freeze-drying microscope (FDM), the Lyostat5 with its unique tilt-back imaging station for easy sample loading, and the Lyotherm3 frozen state solution analyser which combines traditional DTA, with electrical impedance to provide the most accurate data relating to critical product stages to optimise the efficiencies of freeze drying process development. In addition to this, Biopharma is currently in the process of collaboratively developing some modular bolt-ons and new analytical equipment that they are looking to start introducing to the market from the end of 2018. Also, another product is going to be added to their freeze dryer range, namely the ‘Lyocapsule’ for small scale production and testing that can be used in conjunction with TDLAS and ControLyo software, as well as the ‘LyoConstellation’ for scale up and/or down. When looking at the developments in the wider pharmaceutical manufacturing and packaging market, Biopharma Group has seen a large increase in demand for post-lyo process analysis, rather than purely pre-lyo analysis. With this in mind, Biopharma has purchased a DVS system for the lab to assist in post-process analysis, which will also be beneficial for the food processing industries who are particularly interested in moisture analysis and reconstitution. Looking ahead to what the future holds, Biopharma Group is currently in the process of developing, collaboratively and in-house, a number of specialist analytical instruments and equipment that are scheduled to be introduced into the market from the end of 2018. This is to address sample volume, small scale testing and lyo-cake issues that the firm are aware their client base has issues with. This is in addition to the expansion of Biopharma Group’s production scale freeze dryer range, Cuddon, throughout Europe, especially in light of the increasing trend toward freeze drying in the food processing industry. Company: Biopharma Group Biopharma House, Winnall Valley Road, Winchester, SO23 0LD, UK Tel: +44 (0)1962 841092 Email:
[email protected] Web: www.biopharma.co.uk PP180010