RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – On Monday, Feb. 26, as a prelude to the 26th Annual CED Life Sciences Forum, the North Carolina Biotechnology Center (NCBC) and The Center of Innovation Network (COIN) will be hosting a special forum focused on Biomanufacturing in North Carolina.

North Carolina’s Life Sciences Sector runs deep and wide across the State.  Over 650 life sciences companies contribute over $86B to the North Carolina economy with 63,000 employees and direct payroll of $6.6B.  Indirectly, the industry impacts over 260,000 employees and provides over $2.2B in State and Local taxes to our economy.  A significant number of the industry’s workers work in the advanced manufacturing facilities that provide life-saving medicines and devices to the world.

Often overlooked is the fact that in the past few years global biotech companies in North Carolina, including Novo Nordisk, Grifols, Pfizer, and others will invest over $3B in advanced biomanufacturing facilities and add thousands of new jobs both directly within the facilities and, not-to-be overlooked, in the companies that serve these facilities.

Our panelists at this Forum will discuss their plans for growing their advanced manufacturing capabilities and what they see as the future of biomanufacturing in North Carolina, which is the 3rd largest biomanufacturing cluster in the US.  They’ll also discuss their manpower needs and how our Universities and National Initiatives such as NIIMBL (The National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals) are helping them continue to grow and positively impact our economy and global health.  NIIMBL is a public-private consortium dedicated to advancing biopharmaceutical manufacturing innovation.

Confirmed Speakers include:

  • Dr. Ruben Carbonell, the Chief Technology Officer of NIIMBL.  Dr. Carbonell is also the Director of the NC State Kenan Institute, the Director of the Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center (BTEC), a Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering, a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors.

BTEC

  • Sergi Roura, the North America Facilities President at Grifols, which includes Grifols’ sites functions in North Carolina, Los Angeles, Emeryville and San Diego and oversight of facilities, functions, and new projects, Plasma Operations, laboratories and 176 Donor Centers across the United States. Prior positions included Managing Director of Grifols Engineering and site head of the Grifols Clayton, NC manufacturing plant.  Mr. Roura also serves on numerous industry and charitable community organization boards.
  • Carnley Norman, Vice President of Manufacturing at KBI, leads the manufacturing team of KBI Biopharma’s contract process development organization. His team develops manufacturing processes for a wide variety of proteins including mAbs, cytokines, enzymes, vaccines and novel protein scaffolds for biopharmaceutical production from proof-of-concept to mid-stage clinical trials including characterization and validation studies in support of licensure filings and internal and external technology transfers.
  • Rebecca Holland New serves as Group Vice President, Enterprise Operations for Thermo Fisher, responsible for $1b+ procurement organization, across 27 sites and shipping to 70+ countries.  She leads the company project management & integration office including M&A diligence, critical path to close, talent, structure, resource planning and integration and is responsible for global business services overseeing strategic vendor relationships for IT, procurement, human resources, and finance.  Ms. Holland New is also a member of the company’s executive committee and enterprise operations team.

Given the remarkable growth and impact of the biomanufacturing industry in North Carolina over the past few years we’re truly excited about hosting this event, and to be hearing from the leaders in the industry, one of the most important to the economy of North Carolina.

The event will be held at NCBC from 4:30 PM until 6:30 PM.  For additional details and registration information please go to NCBC event site.

Note: Joe Magno is COIN’s Executive Director and a frequent contributor to WRAL TechWire.