INTERPHEX Comes to New York

INTERPHEX 2010 is taking place this week at the Jacob K. Javits Center in New York. The conference, which will last from April 20 through April 22, focuses on pharmaceutical manufacturing. Equipment vendors traditionally display their newest devices on the exhibit floor. This year, the show also will encompass a series of presentations grouped under subject categories such as facilities, supply chain, process analytical technology (PAT), sustainability, and quality by design.

BioPharm International will present the keynote panel address, which will take place on the first day of the conference. Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC’s Hardball, will moderate a discussion titled “Healthcare Reform and Its Impact on the Biopharmaceutical Industry.”

This year, Pharmaceutical Technology will present the Signature Series of discussions, a new group of sessions about important pharmaceutical-industry topics. During the Signature Series, Guy Villax, chief executive officer of Hovione (Loures, Portugal) and a board member of the European Fine Chemicals Group, will analyze challenges in global supply-chain security such as manufacturing quality control and regulatory perspectives. At another Signature Series session, Jim Miller, president of PharmSource (Springfield, VA) and a columnist for Pharmaceutical Technology, will explain how pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies’ reorganizations will affect the demand for contract services during the next two years.

In addition, Pharmaceutical Technology will present a session at which FDA officials will answer attendees’ questions about common deficiencies in the chemistry, manufacturing, and controls section of new drug applications and abbreviated new drug applications. The officials will include Robert Iser, lead chemist of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research’s Office of Generic Drugs; Richard Lostritto, director of Division III of the Office of New Drug Quality Assessment; and Aloka Srinivasan, lead chemist at the Office of Generic Drugs.

Editors of Pharmaceutical Technology and BioPharm International also will conduct a series of videotaped interviews during the conference. Interviewees will include Jerry Martin, senior vice-president of global scientific affairs for Pall (Port Washington, NY), and Maik Jornitz, group vice-president of global marketing and product management for filtration at Sartorius-Stedim Biotech (Goettingen, Germany), who will answer questions about challenges in viral filtration. Editors also will ask Todd Kapp, business development manager at American RENOLIT (LaPorte, IN), about sourcing for disposable components. George Mackey, project director at Genentech (South San Francisco, CA), will talk about the company’s experience with modular facility construction at its site in Singapore. Interviews will be available on Pharmaceutical Technology’s website after the conference concludes.

Among the speakers scheduled to give presentations during the conference are the following:

• Jason Martin, associate director of Lonza Biologics (Basel), will discuss Lean techniques that can improve materials management
• Ian Holloway, manager of the Defective Medicines Report Centre at the United Kingdom’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, will discuss techniques to maintain the cold chain
• Nirdosh Jagota, vice-president of regulatory affairs at Pfizer (New York), will lead a symposium that assesses the US Food and Drug Administration’s progress in reevaluating good manufacturing practice
• Yusuf Sulub, senior PAT scientist at Novartis Pharmaceuticals (Basel), will present a case study of the company’s application of PAT to the blending process.

More information is available at the INTERPHEX website.