Avantor Geared for Biopharma Industry’s Future with Next-Generation Biotherapeutics

With the company poised to launch its new innovation center in Bridgewater, NJ, Avantor anticipates seeing a future full of opportunities for service providers resulting from the growing number of next-generation biotherapeutics in the development pipeline.

“The first thing [that comes to mind] is lots of opportunities, because this is really going back to the base of innovation,” said Benoit Gourdier, executive vice-president and head, Bioscience Production Segment, Avantor, in an interview with BioPharm International® at a press event held at the Bridgewater facility on Nov. 13. 2024.

Where once the biopharma industry was dominated by monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), the industry can now expect to see a wave of newer, more innovative therapies aimed at achieving precision treatment. “Starting 25-30 years ago, it was really mAbs, mAbs, mAbs, and traditional vaccines,” Gourdier said, adding, “We grew up in this environment. Now we have this diverse portfolio of modalities, so [that will provide] lots of opportunities to go after, to learn.”

The challenges that Gourdier anticipates in the future could likely revolve around chemistry, fluid handling, meeting high purity in a regulated market, among others, but Gourdier is confident that Avantor will be well prepared to meet these challenges and to offer the appropriate support as a service provider.

Nandu Deorkar, senior vice-president, Bioscience Production Research & Development, Avantor, added that, because of the shift to personalized medicine manufacturing, there will be more distributed manufacturing. “If you look at the cell and gene therapy [space], [patients] will be treated on a personal basis, so there will be more distributed manufacturing on a local basis; so how do we support this geographically?” Deorkar said in the interview.

Deorkar also added, “Some of these therapies have 48 hours to 72 hours injection requirement after manufacturing, so [not all] the manufacturing can be done [in one place].”

Gourdier, meanwhile, pointed out that, in addition to the expectation of a different manufacturing and supply chain scenario for next-gen biotherapeutics, the industry suffered from supply chain disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which are still ongoing in the post-COVID environment. Regionalization has become more important, he noted. “[Developers] want global partners with regional focus,” he stated.

Other factors that have disrupted the pace of development for these next-gen biotherapeutics has been a drop in funding as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Gourdier added. “Most of the big players are okay,” he observed, “but for smaller players, the amount of money available for them has decreased significantly. We are just [coming] back [from that]. Now we are in modest recovery from that (i.e., the funding) perspective.”

Meanwhile, the pace of innovation has itself been posing challenges, particularly in relation to which platform technology to use. “This is something where we’re seeing a fast evolution. From that perspective, at Avantor we are agnostic because we can provide product, solutions, technologies, platforms, support, and this innovation center is a good example. No matter the modality, we have a solution for the players,” Gourdier stated.

Avantor’s new Bridgewater Innovation Center is set to launch on Nov. 14. It has been designed as a state-of-the-art research and development facility and joins the company’s network of 13 research and innovation centers globally.