Date: Jun 08, 2010 Source: (
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Bioproduction Group has announced significant technical results in their research collaboration with the National Science Foundation (NSF). The goal of the project was to establish a new technology for high-speed simulation that could be used to model risk across the entire biopharmaceutical manufacturing network.
Results to date indicate that Bio-G has achieved simulation speeds orders of magnitude higher than conventional simulations, at considerably greater detail. "The technology allows us to model entire biopharmaceutical supply chains to a stunning degree of accuracy", comments Bio-G Principal Rick Johnston. "This means a better assessment of risk, and significant direct savings for biopharmaceutical manufacturers". The technology has already been deployed in several multinational biotech manufacturing networks, where it has shown millions of dollars in direct cost savings.
Planning in biopharmaceutical manufacturing has long been hindered by low-resolution, average-case models that fail to model variability and risk. Such toolsets may plan well for "the average day" but cannot provide the kinds of service guarantees biotech companies need to promise to their patents. It is hoped the new technology will break such a paradigm, allowing biomanufacturers to truly understand the very real risks in the manufacturing suites.
The technology also has the ability to be used to model low probability, high impact events - such as Genzyme's contamination issues in 2010, which cost that company more than $175 million in fines due to contamination. Modeling of such rare but important events has traditionally been hindered by a lack of understanding of the effects of those events, and simplistic models which failed to understand their true impact. Bio-G's new modeling technologies for the first time allow biopharmaceutical companies to truly understand such risks, and produce comprehensive plans that address them.
