GE Healthcare Life Sciences Named As Finalist For Four Bioprocess Industry Awards

GE Healthcare Life Sciences  announced recently that the company has been shortlisted as a finalist for four BioProcess International (BPI) Awards¹. These prestigious awards, which are voted for by experts in the field and supported by bioprocess specialist publication BioProcess International – celebrate and recognize the outstanding people, organizations and technologies that have significantly changed, impacted, and advanced the efficiency of biotherapeutic development and manufacturing. Two of the nominations received are for GE Healthcare’s people and technologies directly, whilst a further two are the result of collaborations with Promosome LLC and Gallus BioPharmaceuticals LLC².

The full details of the four awards for which GE Healthcare Life Sciences has been shortlisted are as follows:

• “Excellence in Leadership” – Olivier Loeillot, General Manager, Enterprise Solutions and Commercial BioProcess, Asia
• “Best Technology Application (Upstream)” – GE Healthcare Life Sciences XDR-50 MO Fermentor
• “Most Effective Licensing or Comarketing Agreement” – GE Healthcare Life Sciences and Promosome LLC
• "Excellence in Facility Design or Retrofit” – GE Healthcare Life Sciences and Gallus BioPharmaceuticals.

Nigel Darby, Vice President, BioProcess, GE Healthcare Life Sciences, commented: “We’re delighted to receive the industry-wide recognition that being shortlisted for these prestigious awards brings. Our aim is to support the biopharmaceutical industry in its efforts to tackle some of the world’s most challenging diseases, helping reduce costs and improve efficiency from early-stage research through to full-scale manufacturing. Receiving four nominations is testament to the breadth and significance of our contribution. Not only do we have outstanding leadership and innovative technologies in the space, but we also have collaborations with our customers that are pushing the boundaries of what the industry can achieve.”

The finalists in more detail

Olivier Loeillot, General Manager (GM) of the Enterprise Solutions division, has been instrumental in pioneering a new enterprise-wide approach to biopharmaceutical manufacturing excellence. Central to this was the development and launch of KUBio, an off-the-shelf modular manufacturing facility, designed to meet cGMP requirements while optimizing manufacturing flexibility and productivity – helping manufacturers save both time and money whilst increasing speed to market.

GE Healthcare Life Sciences XDR-50 MO Fermentor  is a purpose-built single-use system for the growth of microbial cultures including bacteria, fungi and yeast.  Successful microbial growth in a single-use bioreactor format presents a number of complex challenges which have prevented this segment of the industry benefiting from the advantages single-use solutions can bring. The XDR-50 MO stirred-tank fermentor was successfully designed following extensive user and in-house input and was the first single-use stirred-tank fermentor, specifically designed for microbial cultivation, on the market.

GE Healthcare and Promosome’s partnership aims to develop and bring to market Promosome’s innovative cell line development technologies for increasing expression levels for hard-to-manufacture proteins. The biopharmaceutical industry is constantly looking for ways to improve efficiency and increase flexibility. Promosome’s technologies can drive up protein yields and boost the output of cell lines for hard-to-express proteins to a level where large-scale manufacturing becomes viable. As a result, it may be possible to progress previously disregarded therapies which are based on hard-to-manufacture proteins. Such technology could also improve manufacturing efficiency through increased protein yields.

GE Healthcare and Gallus BioPharmaceuticals have worked closely together to design and build an advanced contract manufacturing facility in just nine months. Utilizing GE Healthcare’s FlexFactory™, a flexible single-use biomanufacturing platform, has enabled Gallus to expand its offering to include a “virtual ownership” model in addition to the traditional pay-per-run approach.  Virtual ownership gives clients control of dedicated capacity without the outlay of traditional capital investment, as well as the ability to access capacity as needed.

1. To see the finalists programme for the BioProcess International Awards 2014, see this link(http://www.bioprocessintl.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/BPI-Awards_Finalists_2014.pdf).
2. Gallus BioPharmaceuticals was recently acquired by DPx Holdings B.V. and now operates under the Patheon business unit. For further information on the acquisition review the recent press release, link(http://news.cision.com/patheon/r/dpx-holdings-b-v--completes-acquisition-of-gallus-biopharmaceuticals,c9652368).

About GE Healthcare
GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services to meet the demand for increased access, enhanced quality and more affordable healthcare around the world. GE works on things that matter - great people and technologies taking on tough challenges. From medical imaging, software & IT, patient monitoring and diagnostics to drug discovery, biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies and performance improvement solutions, GE Healthcare helps medical professionals deliver great healthcare to their patients. For more information, visit www.gehealthcare.com.