If you didn’t make it last year, here is a synopsis form last year’s chairman…

“On February 1–2, 2011, I visited Brussels to chair the International Quality and Productivity Center's (IQPC) Pharma–IQ Disposables Solutions for Biomanufacturing Conference, which was attended by nearly 100 European manufacturers and suppliers. The conference was Pharma–IQ's third Annual European Disposables meeting. The previous two annual conferences were held in London, and the event is shaping up to be a key European conference for single-use activities. This year's meeting featured speakers from several European-based vaccine, biopharmaceutical, and contract manufacturers, including Novartis, Vivalis, Genzyme, CMC Biologics, Cobra Biomanufacturing, Innogenics, Crucell, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, and Merck Serono, along with supplier presentations from Pall Life Sciences, Sartorius-Stedim Biotech, Novasep, JM Bioconnect, GE Healthcare, and ATMI Life Sciences.

National European regulatory authorities and the European Medicines Agency have not made public statements about the acceptability or requirements for single-use technologies, but this has not deterred European drug sponsor and contract manufacturing facilities from implementing such systems for both clinical and production batches. Conference topics, for example, focused on everything from comparability of product quality and reduction of carbon footprints to implementation of single-use systems for buffer filling processes and preparation of regulatory submissions. The conference also featured several roundtable discussion sessions that facilitated the sharing of questions and experiences among participants.”

Jerold Martin, Senior Vice-President of Global Scientific Affairs, Pall Life Sciences, and Chairman of the Board and Technology Committee, Bio-Process Systems Alliance