Panel Alpha: Pharmaceutical Manufacturing
0930-1030
“Process Innovation to meet manufacturing needs”
In this panel of Pharmaceutical Manufacturing, we aspire to bring to your attention the distinctive differences between traditional manufacturing and biologics manufacturing and thereby discuss about the collaboration between the public and private sector in biologics manufacturing. Through this panel, we hope that you will be able to better understand your options in the new industry of drug-making and carve out a career in Pharmaceutical Manufacturing.
Discussion Topics
- Biologics - The Challenges and the Opportunities. Is Biologics set to take over traditional pharmaceutical manufacturing or is it just a different paradigm on its own?
- Contract Manufacturing - Why it exists, and what exactly are their roles ?
- Evaluating the impact of the current economic crisis on Pharmaceutical Manufacturing in a company.
- Possible careers and advancement in manufacturing - What fresh graduates can do and their career progression thereafter.
- Industry engagement with academia to cultivate research in manufacturing processes - skills in demand among fresh graduates for employment opportunities.
Panel Chair
Chris Dobson
Vice President & Site Director
Global Manufacturing & Supply
GlaxoSmithKline (Singapore)
Chris Dobson is responsible for the manufacturing operations on the GlaxoSmithKline sites at Pioneer Sector 1 and Quality Road in Singapore. He was appointed to this position on 25 September 2006. He was previously Site Director for the GSK factory in Melbourne, Australia from March 2004.
Chris joined Glaxo in 1986 and held positions as Site Quality Assurance Manager for Ulverston and then Director of Quality at the Jurong, Singapore factory. In 1999, he was appointed Head of Quality Assurance for Primary Supply and held similar positions until his appointment as Site Director in Melbourne.
Chris graduated in Chemistry from Loughborough University in the UK and prior to joining Glaxo spent five years with Beecham and five years with Cyanamid of Great Britain.
He has a wife, Janet with him in Singapore and a 25 year old daughter and a 23 year old son in the UK. Chris enjoys walking, cycling, scuba diving and drinking coffee in the sunshine.
Speakers
Dr. Harry Lam
Director of Manufacturing & Technology
Genentech (Singapore)
Dr. Harry Lam is the Director of Manufacturing & Technology, Genentech Singapore Product Operations. He has held Director positions in Technology, Manufacturing Quality Engineering and Biochem Manufacturing Operations in Genentech prior to assuming his current role in Singapore. Before joining Genentech in 1996, he spent 11 years in the Bioprocess R&D department at Pfizer Central Research, Groton, Connecticut. He has over 20 years of experience is bioprocess R&D and large-scale biochemical manufacturing operations.
Dr. Lam is the author or the co-author of over 20 professional journal papers and presentations and 4 U.S. patents. He is a member of ACS Biochemical Technology Division, ISPE, PDA, and ASTM E55 Committee. Dr. Lam received a B.Sc. degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Birmingham, U.K. and a Ph.D degree in Chemical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York.
Ms. Maria Paula Lanatta
Manufacturing Manager
Lonza
Maria-Paula Lanatta is the Manager for the Downstream Manufacturing Area (protein purification and formulation) at the Lonza Biologics production facility in Singapore. Maria-Paula has been responsible for leading the Commissioning and Validation activities of the new facility and is currently preparing the Downstream Manufacturing department for cGMP operations.
Maria-Paula started her career in Biopharmaceutical manufacturing at DSM Biologics, a contract manufacturer, where she participated in her first expansion project to build a new production suite for a customer. In 2003, she joined Lonza for the Large Scale Build Out project (three x 20,000 Liter bioreactors) in New Hampshire. After seeing the project through to completion and successfully transferring two customer mAb processes, Maria-Paula joined Amgen’s production facility in Colorado, flawlessly delivering products to patients.
Maria-Paula holds a B.Sc in Biochemistry from Universite de Montreal, Canada.
Mr Hong Shyh Poh
Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Manager
Merck Sharp & Dohme (Singapore)
Mr Hong Shyh Poh is the Manufacturing Manager for the Pharmaceutical Tabletting Facility in Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD) , Singapore . He graduated with a Bachelor of Electrical Engieeering from NUS and has been with MSD for nine years. He started off his career in MSD in 2000 as an automation engineer and took on increasing responsibilities over the years. He made the transition to operations management in 2007. To date, Shyh Poh’s areas of expertise include automation system design and qualification, system life cycle implementation, production planning, manufacturing operations and training and development. For the past year, he has taken on a critical leadership role to implement lean manufacturing initiatives at the MSD site. Prior to joining MSD, he was with Yokogawa Engineering Asia as a senior control system engineer supporting the pharmaceutical industry.
Thirunavukkarasu RamasamyOperational Quality Manager
Schering Plough Ltd, Singapore
Thirunavukkarasu Ramasamy is the Operational Quality Manager for Biotech Operations in Schering-Plough Ltd, Singapore. He graduated with a Master’s of Science in Microbiology.
He has 14 years experiences in the pharmaceutical industry. He has worked in companies like JK Pharmachem Ltd and Searle (India) Ltd specializing in fermentation and downstream processing technologies. His areas of expertise are in Microbiology, pharmaceutical product quality, technology transfer, manufacturing, fermentation and purification technology and general quality management.
A strong believer in Good Manufacturing Practices, Thiru is passionate about Continuous Improvement and Quality by Design concept. He has successfully implemented Quality Systems in plant operations and has exposure to many regulatory agencies like FDA, EMEA etc. Thiru currently manages the quality operations of the Biotech facility at Schering Plough in Singapore.
Mr. Jean-Luc GilgenkrantzHead, Quality Assurance
Novartis Singapore Pharmaceutical
Jean-Luc Gilgenkrantz has been the Head-Quality Assurance in Novartis Singapore Pharmaceutical Manufacturing since Sep 2006. He is on an international assignment from Novartis France where he had held the positions of Head-Qualification Validation for 4.5 years as well as Head-Quality Assurance Compliance for 5.5 years.
Jean-Luc Gilgenkrantz holds a PH.D in Pharmacy and a Postgraduate Diploma in Pharmacology from the University of Strasbourg in France.