CPI Announced as Winner of Biotechnology Award at IChemE Global Awards 2019 Event

CPI won the 2019 award for the successful delivery of the collaborative BioStreamline project. This Advanced Manufacturing Supply Chain Initiative (AMSCI)-funded project aimed to accelerate biotherapeutic drug discovery by improving development and manufacture, and involved Lonza Biologics, UCB Celltech, Sphere Fluidics, Horizon Discovery and Alcyomics Ltd, as partners. 

The IChemE Global Awards celebrate excellence, innovation and achievement in the chemical, process and biochemical industries from around the world. Now in its 25th year, they are widely considered the world’s most prestigious chemical engineering awards and this year attracted over 240 applications from leading engineering organisations.

The winning project focussed on accelerating the discovery and development of monoclonal antibody biotherapeutics and aimed to overcome key bottlenecks in the biologics supply chain. By improving biologics development and manufacture, the project will enable novel, effective biotherapeutic treatments to be identified earlier and consequently accelerate patient access.

Together, CPI worked with its partners to deliver several key project aims. A major milestone included the expression and purification of more than 50 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) using industry competitive platforms. In addition, CPI used the biochemical, biophysical and stability data collected on each of these molecules to contribute to the design of a developability tool. This milestone will enable companies to make more accurate decisions during process development. These methods are also transferable to additional biotherapeutics, presenting an opportunity for the manufacture of antibody drug conjugates, bispecific monoclonal antibodies and viral vectors. 

In addition to the achievement of these key project outcomes, CPI also created seven new jobs with roles that fit with the project commitments. The excellent collaboration within the project was promoted by the secondment of three CPI project scientists to UCB and Lonza. Each scientist gained valuable experience and expertise in molecular biology, upstream processing and analytical assessment. These skills gained during the collaboration were then used in the BioStreamline project on their return to CPI.

John Liddell, Chief Technologist, CPI, said: ​“It is exciting to see the outcomes of this project and the impact it will have on both the biotherapeutics industry and society as a whole. I am delighted to see all the hard work put in by the project team now being recognised on a global stage such as this, it really is a credit to everyone involved.”