Today’s life sciences industry stands at the same precipice, faced with similar economic, process design and efficiency challenges in manufacturing as faced by heavy industry over a century ago. In no area can this be felt more acutely than with the manufacture of large molecule therapies, or biologics. Biologics are “living drugs,” and differ from small molecules in that their constituent parts are made by other living organisms (yeasts, viruses and the like). In terms of complexity, one might consider biologics versus small molecule manufacturing as the difference between manufacturing a 10-speed bicycle and an Airbus A380.
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