Collaboration fuels tech expertise in biopharma industry

Caption: The Golden LEAF Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center (BTEC) at North Carolina State University

LZ Lifescience to partner with North Carolina State University’s Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center to help promote and support technology expertise in the biopharma industry.

The Golden LEAF BTEC center will introduce LZ Lifescience’s manufacturing execution system (MES) technology into its biotech laboratory, replacing paper-based systems with electronic batch record (EBR) capabilities to improve performance and demonstrate efficiencies.

Reflecting an industry-wide shift towards implementing technology to manage manufacturing operations, undergraduates, graduate students and industry professionals will now be able to access hands-on learning with the latest MES technology for biomanufacturing.

Commenting on the collaboration, Christian Fortunel, vice president at LZ Lifescience Inc. said: “There is a clear mind-set change in the biopharma manufacturing industry, with firms increasingly exploring ways to improve their operations by replacing paper records with electronic ones and accessing plant information in real-time.

“BTEC has recognized that dedicated training for current and future industry professionals is extremely important and we are privileged to be able to support the center with our expertise and technology. Students will have a unique opportunity to learn about MES in the context of a production grade biotech laboratory.”

LZ Lifescience will provide in-depth training and technical support to the BTEC team as its MES technology, Shopfloor-Online Lifescience edition, is initially implemented in the center’s chromatography work space, before expanding throughout its biomanufacturing facility.

Christian added: “MES solutions have the ability to deliver time efficiencies, cost savings and performance improvements throughout the biopharma manufacturing process, eliminating errors and simplifying compliance.

“The life science industry faces a unique set of requirements when implementing MES technology and we will be working alongside BTEC and its many students to ensure they have the knowledge and skills to get the best from these systems.”

BTEC provides educational and training opportunities to develop skilled professionals for the biomanufacturing industry. The center also offers bioprocess development and analytical services to a wide range of customers from academia and industry.

The center features more than $12.5 million of industry-standard equipment and a simulated cGMP pilot plant facility capable of producing biopharmaceutical products using cell growth and expression, recovery and purification processes in a sterile environment.

Gary Gilleskie, director, operations & teaching associate professor at the Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center said: “BTEC is excited to collaborate with LZ Lifescience to bring electronic batch records to our facility.

“Our students will certainly benefit from hands-on exposure to a technology that is increasingly being adopted by industry. Through this experience, they will see the advantages that electronic batch records offer over more traditional paper-based systems.”

Shopfloor-Online is a well-established, web-based product that has already been installed with hundreds of customers in different sectors across the world. The launch of the Lifescience edition in December 2015 has extended its functionality to meet the demanding MES requirements of the life science industry.

By replacing traditional paper-based systems with MES technology, companies can improve regulatory compliance, increase visibility, eliminate errors in real-time, lower production costs, improve equipment efficiency and reduce waste and inventory.