From the Incoming Editor in Chief: Big Molecules and the Big Picture

When devising business strategy or making a career move, one always looks for growth. That's precisely what has brought me to BioPharm International.

The biotech industry is growing and maturing. Manufacturers are pursuing — and achieving — new yield levels in protein expression. At the same time, companies are refining filtration and separation methods, embracing disposable processing equipment, building manufacturing facilities, and researching new technologies that open up new treatment possibilities.

In keeping up with these changes, BioPharm also has grown, under the leadership of departing editor in chief Carol Fisher. As Carol mentions in New Beginnings , the magazine added an array of columns that expand the magazine's editorial content to address business questions as well as the pursuit of operations excellence — concerns that biotech companies face as they mature from small, discovery-based start-ups to full-scale international manufacturers.

So biotech is an exciting place to be. And coming from Pharmaceutical Technology magazine, joining BioPharm feels like a natural step. It's an opportunity to apply knowledge from the small-molecule world — about good manufacturing practices, quality control, aseptic processing, process control, validation, and analytical methods — while delving deeper into large-molecule topics such as fermentation and cell culture, protein expression, and transgenics.

It's also a chance to take advantage of my industry experience. BioPharm already supports smaller companies in addressing business issues such as as raising capital, managing licensing and partnerships, and protecting intellectual property. But we won't lose sight of the concerns of large, international organizations. Working with markets in Asia Pacific and Latin America at Pharmacia Corporation taught me about the complex sourcing and regulatory challenges that global companies face as they bring new products to market and ensure manufacturing compliance under multiple sets of rules. I look forward to serving the needs of all companies, large and small.

In joining the publication's staff, I am following the lead of Publisher Mike Tessalone, who added BioPharm to his portfolio in September. With 13 years of experience as the group publisher for LCGC and Spectroscopy, Mike is enjoying expanding his focus from highly specialized techniques to the broader range of manufacturing science and business concerns that affect the biopharmaceutical industry.

Thus, for both of us, joining BioPharm International is a move to big molecules and the big picture. Our role is to ensure that the publication remains an indispensible resource to its readers and contributes to the advancement of biopharmaceutical manufacturing science and the industry as a whole. At the same time, we will continue to identify and fill new informational needs, for both our readers and advertisers, through our monthly issues as well as in new supplement series and on line informational sources.

Because we're in this for growth.

Laura Bush

BioPharm International

lbush@advanstar.com