Biopharmaceuticals An Industrial Perspective

This book provides a unique and up-to-date insight into the biopharmaceutical industry. Largely written by industrial authors, its scope is multidisciplinary, rendering it an ideal reference source for students undertaking advanced undergraduate or postgraduate courses in biotechnology, pharmaceutical science, biochemistry, or medicine.

This book addresses the rapidly emerging field of Knowledge Management in the pharmaceutical, medical devices and medical diagnostics industries. In particular, it explores the role that Knowledge Management can play in ensuring the delivery of safe and effective products to patients. The book also provides good practice examples of how the effective use of an organisation’s knowledge assets can provide a path towards business excellence.

Pharmaceutical Biotechnology: A Focus on Industrial Application covers the development of new biopharmaceuticals as well as the improvement of those being produced. The main purpose is to provide background and concepts related to pharmaceutical biotechnology, together with an industrial perspective. This is a comprehensive text for undergraduates, graduates and academics in biochemistry, pharmacology and biopharmaceutics, as well as professionals working on the interdisciplinary field of pharmaceutical biotechnology. Written with educators in mind, this book provides teachers with background material to enhance their classes and offers students and other readers an easy-to-read text that examines the step-by-step stages of the development of new biopharmaceuticals. Features: Discusses specific points of great current relevance in relation to new processes as well as traditional processes Addresses the main unitary operations used in the biopharmaceutical industry such as upstream and downstream Includes chapters that allow a broad evaluation of the production process Dr. Adalberto Pessoa Jr. is Full Professor at the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences of the University of São Paulo and Visiting Senior Professor at King’s College London. He has experience in enzyme and fermentation technology and in the purification processes of biotechnological products such as liquid–liquid extraction, cross-flow filtration and chromatography of interest to the pharmaceutical and food industries. Dr. Michele Vitolo is Full Professor at the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences of the University of São Paulo. He has experience in enzyme technology, in immobilization techniques (aiming the reuse of the biocatalyst) and in the operation of membrane reactors for obtaining biotechnological products of interest to the pharmaceutical, chemical and food industries. Dr. Paul F. Long is Professor of Biotechnology at King's College London and Visiting International Research Professor at the University of São Paulo. He is a microbiologist by training and his research uses a combination of bioinformatics, laboratory and field studies to discover new medicines from nature, particularly from the marine environment.

Biopharmaceuticals are derived from biological sources, either live organisms or their active components; nowadays, they are mainly produced by biotechnologies. Biopharmaceuticals are extensively used in the treatment of various diseases such as cardiovascular, metabolic, neurological diseases, cancer, and others for which there are no available therapeutic methods. With the advance of science, biopharmaceuticals have revolutionized the treatment, prevention, and diagnosis of many patients with disabling and life-threatening diseases. Innovative biopharmaceuticals definitely improve the life quality of patients and enhance the effectiveness of the healthcare system. This book encompasses the discovery, production, application, and regulation of biopharmaceuticals to demonstrate their research achievement, prospects, and challenges. We expect the significance of biopharmaceuticals to be revealed and emphasized by this book.

Thanks to remarkable advances in modern health care attributable to science, engineering, and medicine, it is now possible to cure or manage illnesses that were long deemed untreatable. At the same time, however, the United States is facing the vexing challenge of a seemingly uncontrolled rise in the cost of health care. Total medical expenditures are rapidly approaching 20 percent of the gross domestic product and are crowding out other priorities of national importance. The use of increasingly expensive prescription drugs is a significant part of this problem, making the cost of biopharmaceuticals a serious national concern with broad political implications. Especially with the highly visible and very large price increases for prescription drugs that have occurred in recent years, finding a way to make prescription medicinesâ€"and health care at largeâ€"more affordable for everyone has become a socioeconomic imperative. Affordability is a complex function of factors, including not just the prices of the drugs themselves, but also the details of an individual's insurance coverage and the number of medical conditions that an individual or family confronts. Therefore, any solution to the affordability issue will require considering all of these factors together. The current high and increasing costs of prescription drugsâ€"coupled with the broader trends in overall health care costsâ€"is unsustainable to society as a whole. Making Medicines Affordable examines patient access to affordable and effective therapies, with emphasis on drug pricing, inflation in the cost of drugs, and insurance design. This report explores structural and policy factors influencing drug pricing, drug access programs, the emerging role of comparative effectiveness assessments in payment policies, changing finances of medical practice with regard to drug costs and reimbursement, and measures to prevent drug shortages and foster continued innovation in drug development. It makes recommendations for policy actions that could address drug price trends, improve patient access to affordable and effective treatments, and encourage innovations that address significant needs in health care.

Pharmaceutical Quality by Design: Principles and Applications discusses the Quality by Design (QbD) concept implemented by regulatory agencies to ensure the development of a consistent and high-quality pharmaceutical product that safely provides the maximum therapeutic benefit to patients. The book walks readers through the QbD framework by covering the fundamental principles of QbD, the current regulatory requirements, and the applications of QbD at various stages of pharmaceutical product development, including drug substance and excipient development, analytical development, formulation development, dissolution testing, manufacturing, stability studies, bioequivalence testing, risk and assessment, and clinical trials. Contributions from global leaders in QbD provide specific insight in its application in a diversity of pharmaceutical products, including nanopharmaceuticals, biopharmaceuticals, and vaccines. The inclusion of illustrations, practical examples, and case studies makes this book a useful reference guide to pharmaceutical scientists and researchers who are engaged in the formulation of various delivery systems and the analysis of pharmaceutical product development and drug manufacturing process. Discusses vital QbD precepts and fundamental aspects of QbD implementation in the pharma, biopharma and biotechnology industries Provides helpful illustrations, practical examples and research case studies to explain QbD concepts to readers Includes contributions from global leaders and experts from academia, industry and regulatory agencies

Pharmaceutical Biotechnology offers students taking Pharmacy and related Medical and Pharmaceutical courses a comprehensive introduction to the fast-moving area of biopharmaceuticals. With a particular focus on the subject taken from a pharmaceutical perspective, initial chapters offer a broad introduction to protein science and recombinant DNA technology- key areas that underpin the whole subject. Subsequent chapters focus upon the development, production and analysis of these substances. Finally the book moves on to explore the science, biotechnology and medical applications of specific biotech products categories. These include not only protein-based substances but also nucleic acid and cell-based products. introduces essential principles underlining modern biotechnology- recombinant DNA technology and protein science an invaluable introduction to this fast-moving subject aimed specifically at pharmacy and medical students includes specific ‘product category chapters’ focusing on the pharmaceutical, medical and therapeutic properties of numerous biopharmaceutical products. entire chapter devoted to the principles of genetic engineering and how these drugs are developed. includes numerous relevant case studies to enhance student understanding no prior knowledge of protein structure is assumed