Some in the industry find it hard to imagine that there are 1000 biomanufacturers worldwide. But our research, reports, and studies have shown that in China and India alone the number of qualified facilities has grown more than 20% in the past three years to their current number of 91 and 99, respectively (see Table I). To create the BioPlan BioFacility Index and rank biomanufacturers, we analyzed overall fixed capacity, manufacturing-related employment, and number of commercial and clinical products. The result is an indexed ranking based on these factors. Shortcomings in this methodology include: difficulty in establishing equivalence between capacity for, say, a monoclonal versus microbial, versus vaccine production; questions regarding which functions are "manufacturing related"; weight to be applied to each factor; and the need to monitor each factor regularly to ensure up-to-date ranking. Prior efforts to benchmark manufacturing have generally failed because managing thousands of data points, year after year, becomes virtually impossible. For this effort, we are making use of the industry's own knowledge. Our analysis uses publicly available information that we have amassed over decades. In addition, we have recruited hundreds of participants to maintain the listing. But most uniquely, to keep the data accurate, we have implemented a "Wiki" approach whereby industry is able to contribute public knowledge.

In addition, BioPlan will pass proposed changes to the database through our review panel to ensure accuracy and consistency of any updates.