Author: cespe

We are thrilled to announce the official launch of the ambitious PHARMECO project, co-funded by the Innovative Health Initiative Joint Undertaking (IHI JU). This groundbreaking initiative aims to transform pharmaceutical industry to more sustainable pharmaceutical manufacturing practices by integrating  environmentally-friendlier technologies, improved processes and standardized sustainability assessment methods.

PHARMECO will address the production of small molecules, tides, biologics, and medical devices & technologies, with a key focus on:

• Sustainable-by-Design (SSbD) platforms for early-stage pharmaceutical development
• Green processes for industrial-scale manufacturing and decontamination
• Advanced digital tools for sustainability assessment and decision-making

CESPE is excited to lead this alliance of 31 esteemed international partners, together with Sanofi as industry project lead:

CESPE’s focus on sustainable innovation in drug manufacturing positions it as the ideal coordinator for this groundbreaking six-year project, guiding partners toward ambitious sustainability goals.
Seven Ghent University research groups, all CESPE members, will be actively involved across all PHARMECO workstreams:

The Sustainable Systems Engineering group (STEN) (Prof. Jo Dewulf, Lieselot Boone) will lead the workstream on sustainable design and evaluation frameworks for pharmaceuticals, collaborating closely with Johnson & Johnson and Sanofi. Supported by Ghent University’s Epidemiology of Chronic Diseases unit (Prof. Delphine De Smedt), the Biovism Lab (Prof. Jan Verwaeren), the Bionamix Lab (Prof. Paul Van Liedekerke), and several international partners, STEN will lead environmental impact assessments for innovative manufacturing technologies , the set-up of holistic sustainability evaluations, and development of models and digital tools for predictive sustainability, with industry input to enhance scalability and precision.

The Synthesis, Bioresources, and Bio-organic Chemistry group (SynBioC) (Prof. Chris Stevens) will contribute to the workstream on sustainable chemical synthesis. SynBioC’s activities will focus on creating intermediates from bio-renewable sources, using non-precious metal catalysts, utilizing high-throughput experimentation tools, which will contribute to the project’s ambition to implement cleaner, more economical chemical synthesis processes in industry practice.

The Pharmaceutical Engineering Research Group (Prof. Ashish Kumar) and the Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Process Analytical Technology (Prof. Thomas De Beer) will both contribute to the workstream focused on intensification of biomanufacturing processes. Their efforts will centre on implementing advanced model-based strategies for process control and optimizing production processes. These activities will support the workstream’s objective to incorporate scalable, cleaner, and resource-efficient biomanufacturing methods, practices, and unit operations into industry standards.

Stay tuned for updates as we work on adopting more  sustainable practices in pharmaceutical manufacturing!

• Contact information: sarah.costers@ugent.be
• Website www.pharmeco.eu  (will go live as from 16/12/2024)

This project is supported by the Innovative Health Initiative Joint Undertaking (IHI JU) and its members under grant agreement No 101165889.

We are pleased to announce a significant milestone in the development of The Nucleus, the future home of the CESPE Innovation Accelerator, located at the Tech Lane Ghent Science Park. The structural works have reached their highest point, marking a pivotal step in this landmark project.

In keeping with the Meiboomviering tradition, and with a festive touch, this achievement was commemorated by placing a Christmas tree atop the structure. This gesture symbolizes growth, celebration, and the promise of what is to come.

We extend our deepest gratitude to our valued construction partners for their dedication and collaboration throughout this process: PMV, POM Oost-Vlaanderen, Sogent, Ghent University, Algemene Bouw Maes nv, evr-architecten, VK architects+engineers (part of Sweco), and VINCI Energies.

As The Nucleus takes shape, it is set to become an important center for innovation and collaboration at Tech Lane Ghent Science Park. We look forward to sharing more updates as the project progresses.

Join Ghent University as a Professor in Biologics Manufacturing!

CESPE/Ghent University is excited to announce an open, full-time Lecturer (Tenure Track) position in the Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Department of Biotechnology, specializing in Biologics Manufacturing.

If you’re passionate about innovative, applied, and multidisciplinary research in biopharmaceutical process technology, this opportunity might be for you! This role emphasizes large-scale production of biopharmaceuticals and biotherapeutics, addressing the global need for efficient, profitable production and final product processing.

For more details and to apply, visit: Professor in Biologics manufacturing Job Details | Universiteit Gent

On Monday, June 1st, we had the pleasure of hosting a hardware session in collaboration with our partner, Comate. We were thrilled to have two inspiring speakers:

• Thomas De Beer, CEO of RheaVita, who has integrated all freeze-drying process steps into a continuous production line with a constant infeed of products and the concomitant outfeed of the dried product.

• Leander Van Neste, CEO of Axithra, who is developing a platform to quickly and accurately measure and monitor therapeutic drug concentrations in blood.

Both leaders shared valuable lessons learned and the challenges they’ve faced in their growth journeys. They addressed questions such as the TRL of the product at the moment of the spinoff, the major technological challenges to become GMP/IVD/MDR compliant, and the steps taken in terms of customer/problem/solution fit during the first year.

Their engaging presentations were followed by a lively Q&A session. The event concluded with an opportunity to network and digest the insights over drinks and bites.

We are thrilled to announce that CESPE will be coordinating a groundbreaking €41 million flagship project, PharmECO – Advancing Safe and Sustainable by Design Practices in Pharmaceutical Manufacturing, of which the proposal has now officially been approved! This pioneering initiative, co-funded under the Innovative Health Initiative (IHI JU Call 4, Topic 6), aims to revolutionize pharmaceutical manufacturing by (i) implementing cutting-edge, sustainable, and scalable manufacturing technologies, and (ii) establishing harmonized environmental sustainability assessment systems for pharmaceuticals and biopharmaceuticals.

To achieve the ambitious goals of this project, 7 CESPE research groups will collaborate with 30 esteemed international institutes, including universities, research institutes, governmental bodies, SMEs, and major pharmaceutical companies.

PharmECO is set to kick off on October 1st, 2024.

CESPE groups involved:

• Prof. Jo Dewulf – Sustainable Systems Engineering (STEN) research group; Faculty of Bioscience Engineering
• Prof. Chris Stevens – Synthesis, Bioresources and Bio-organic Chemistry Research Group (SynBioC); Faculty of Bioscience Engineering
• Prof. Ashish Kumar – Pharmaceutical Engineering Research Group; Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences 
• Prof. Thomas De Beer – Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Process Analytical Technology Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences 
• Prof. Delphine Desmedt Department of Public Health and Primary Care; Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences
• Prof. Paul van Liedekerke – BionamiX Research Unit, Department of Data analysis and mathematical modelling,  Faculty of Bioscience Engineering
• Prof. Jan Verwaeren – KERMIT research unit, Department of Data analysis and mathematical modelling Faculty of Bioscience Engineering

Looking Ahead:

As we embark on this exciting journey, we are committed to driving innovations that will not only advance pharmaceutical manufacturing but also contribute to a more sustainable future. Stay tuned for updates on our progress and the incredible developments we will bring to the industry.

For more information, please contact sarah.costers@ugent.be

We at CESPE were thrilled to attend the official opening of the HighTru Lab. This innovative facility marks a significant milestone as Belgium’s first academic lab capable of high-throughput experimentation (HTE), accelerating chemical and pharmaceutical discoveries.

HTE technology enables the simultaneous conduction and rapid analysis of numerous experiments, for example, by using 96-well plates. By leveraging miniaturization, automation, and advanced data management systems, HTE can efficiently screen vast amounts of chemical space. This approach facilitates the discovery of optimal conditions or novel reactions.

The state-of-the-art equipment of HighTru includes solid and liquid handling robots, a robotic reaction platform with integrated solid and liquid handling, several reaction platforms for high-pressure, photo-, and electrochemistry, a high-throughput UPLC-MS, and a software platform for HTE design, execution, and data analysis. This equipment operates under an open-access model, facilitating collaboration between industry and academia. This remarkable partnership, involving Ghent University, Johnson & Johnson, and the City of Ghent, with funding from the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility, will accelerate research and strengthen Ghent’s reputation as a hub for cutting-edge science.

Join our Industrial Member Secoya at a two-day crystallization event!

During this event, you’ll have the exclusive opportunity to discover Secoya’s continuous crystallization technology, explore their latest technological breakthroughs, meet their experts, dive into research and industrial case studies and network with fellow enthusiasts.

Last but not least, Secoya will seize the opportunity to showcase the whole new SCT family, from lab to industrial unit.

Ghent (October 5^th, 2023) – It is with great pleasure that Pfizer Puurs and Ghent University (UGent) announce that Pfizer has officially joined the CESPE innovation cluster, a multi-partner innovation accelerator in the field of pharmaceutical engineering and manufacturing.

We are proud of our footprint in Belgium and our worldwide impact, and happy to expand it further through this collaboration with CESPE at Ghent University.
As we continue to innovate and improve our manufacturing processes and expertise, it is critical that we collaborate with the best and brightest, and we are confident the team at CESPE has the right expertise to make this partnership a great match.

Gudrun Coppens, Director Manufacturing Science & Technology at Pfizer Puurs

The close collaboration between industry and academia in this strategic partnership, combined with their drive to innovate, will play a key role in future pharmaceutical manufacturing.

We are thrilled to welcome Pfizer Puurs to our fast-growing CESPE community of leading innovators in (bio)pharmaceutical manufacturing. We are excited to embark on this inspiring collaborative journey with Pfizer Puurs . This partnership also plays a pivotal role in nurturing local talent and fostering a culture of continuous innovation reflecting the spirit of the thriving Belgian pharma/biotech ecosystem, and particularly the flourishing region of Flanders .

Dr. Dominic De Groote, Business Development Manager at CESPE

About Pfizer Puurs

Pfizer Manufacturing Belgium is the largest production and packaging site of Pfizer worldwide, specializing in aseptic production and packaging. The Pfizer Puurs facility covers 100.000m², and manufactures more than 400 million units of injectable medicines and vaccines every year (excl. Comirnaty). The product physiology ranges from sterile solutions, to sterile suspensions, sterile gels, and freeze dry products, all packed on site in ampoules, vials, plastic bottles, syringes, or cartridges for pens. The medicines and vaccines made in Puurs are shipped to patients in more than 170 markets. 30% of Puurs production is destined for low income countries, in collaboration with UNICEF, WHO, GAVI, and NGOs.

The site has an extensive manufacturing setup with a range of formulation booths, filling lines, automatic inspection lines, packaging lines, freeze driers, and lab facilities. With their clinical pilot plant and experimental plant the Pfizer Puurs is also known as a Launch Site within the Global Pfizer network, providing them the ability to quickly scale-up to commercial manufacturing of a new product.
The last 10 years the number of employees in Puurs has more than doubled, bringing the total number of employees to more than 4.500 in 2023.

For more information, visit https://www.pfizer.be.

About UGent-CESPE

Ghent University (UGent) is a top 100 university and one of the largest Belgian universities in the heart of Europe. It is an active partner in national and international educational, scientific and industrial cooperation. The organization is committed to research and innovation with an annual research budget of more than € 600 million and more than 5,500 researchers active in a wide range of the life, physical and social sciences. UGent TechTransfer and the UGent Business Development Platforms, such as CESPE, support researchers in developing groundbreaking science to bring innovations to the market.

The Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Pharmaceutical Engineering and Manufacturing (CESPE) is a multidisciplinary innovation accelerator hosted at Ghent University focusing on the sustainable development, design and optimization of both drug substance and drug product production platforms. Its ambition is to become the reference centre in end-to-end (bio)pharmaceutical manufacturing in Europe. It accelerates the development of emerging production technologies to manufacture the medicines of the future in a sustainable, agile way.

For more information, visit https://www.cespe.be.

Media contact:

Pfizer

Koen Colpaert, spokesperson Pfizer Manufacturing Belgium
Tel.: +32 499 42 85 56

CESPE

Thomas De Beer, director and principal investigator
Tel: +32 9 264 80 97

Ghent University is now accepting applications for our Master of Science in Pharmaceutical Engineering (MPE) program. Our program offers a unique combined training of pharmaceutical and engineering skills. Both skills are required to develop these pharmaceutical production processes for tomorrow’s drug products and supply needs.
The MPE consists of a two-year English-taught programme of 120 credits and will help you acquire all skills and knowledge that you need to implement novel manufacturing concepts that require a high degree of digitalization and automation. The MPE will also increase your opportunities to get a good position in the pharmaceutical industry or to become an excellent PhD candidate!

For further information, please take a look at the MPE site: https://lnkd.in/gXFbn42H.

It is with great honour that we can announce professor Dieter Deforce as a new academic member of CESPE. His expertise in the fields of pharmaceutical biotechnology and (forensic) DNA-analysis are a crucial addition to the CESPE portfolio.

Dieter Deforce is a professor at the University of Ghent and is the head of the Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology at the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences. From 2001 till 2016 he was also head of the forensic DNA‐analysis laboratory, which he founded at the University of Ghent, accredited and recognized by the Belgian government. He remains in the forensic field as dedicated DNA expert.

He is chair of the Belgian Medicines Committee, member of the Scientific Advise Working Party of the European Medicines Agency. He is also the director of the ProGenTomics platform of the University of Ghent, providing amongst others proteomics and mainly mass spectrometry based protein analytical tools to the research community. He is a partner in NXT‐GNT, a research consortium providing the research community next generation DNA‐sequencing. He is member of the board of directors of the VIB.

His research focuses on applying proteomics and genomics platforms (including Next Generation Sequencing) in the field of post translational protein modifications, stem cell development, prenatal genetic diagnosis, (auto‐)immunity and forensics and he is (co‐)author of over 350 scientific papers.

Ghent (March 25, 2021) – Takeda and Ghent University (UGent) are pleased to announce that Takeda’s Global Manufacturing Site at Lessines has officially joined the CESPE innovation cluster, a multi-partner innovation accelerator in the field of pharmaceutical engineering and manufacturing. This strategic partnership reflects both parties’ strong desire to further intensify their research and innovation efforts and to make optimal use of the cross pollination between industry and academia. Initially, this partnership will focus on optimising digitization in Pharma 4.0, pharmaceutical technology innovation, and optimising energy and material efficiency during production.

“As one of the global leaders in the production of plasma derivatives, Takeda continuously improves its manufacturing operations. To this end, the mutual sharing of knowledge with other companies and knowledge institutions like CESPE is key”, says Gert Verheyden, Head of Manufacturing Sciences at Takeda Lessines. “This allows Takeda Lessines to make a significant contribution to the training of tomorrow’s pharmaceutical engineers, both in existing and emerging education tracks, and also to increase the industrial relevance of possible innovation projects at the international level.” “We are thrilled to collaborate with Takeda and to thus facilitate its strong desire to implementing innovative production processes of active pharmaceutical ingredients and finished pharmaceutical products. We are collaborating precompetitively with an industrial network to build a strong knowledge region enabling the local anchoring of talent and innovation”, says professor Thomas De Beer, Director of CESPE.

 About Takeda

Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (TSE:4502/NYSE:TAK) is a global, values-based, R&D-driven biopharmaceutical leader headquartered in Japan, committed to discover and deliver life-transforming treatments, guided by our commitment to patients, our people and the planet. Takeda focuses its R&D efforts on four therapeutic areas: Oncology, Rare Genetic and Hematology, Neuroscience, and Gastroenterology (GI). We also make targeted R&D investments in Plasma-Derived Therapies and Vaccines. We are focusing on developing highly innovative medicines that contribute to making a difference in people’s lives by advancing the frontier of new treatment options and leveraging our enhanced collaborative R&D engine and capabilities to create a robust, modality-diverse pipeline.

Our employees are committed to improving quality of life for patients and to working with our partners in health care in approximately 80 countries.

For more information, visit https://www.takeda.com.

About UGent-CESPE

Ghent University (UGent) is a top 100 university and one of the largest Belgian universities in the heart of Europe. It is an active partner in national and international educational, scientific and industrial cooperation. The organization is committed to research and innovation with an annual research budget of more than € 600 million and more than 5,500 researchers active in a wide range of the life, physical and social sciences. UGent TechTransfer and the UGent Business Development Platforms, such as CESPE, support researchers in developing groundbreaking science to bring innovations to the market.

The Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Pharmaceutical Engineering and Manufacturing (CESPE) is a multidisciplinary innovation accelerator hosted at Ghent University focusing on the sustainable development, design and optimization of both drug substance and drug product production platforms. Its ambition is to become the reference centre in end-to-end (bio)pharmaceutical manufacturing in Europe. It accelerates the development of emerging production technologies to manufacture the medicines of the future in a sustainable, agile way.

For more information, visit https://www.cespe.be.

Media Contact:

Takeda:
Stefaan Fiers, Head of Corporate Communication
Tel: 0476 76 90 77

CESPE:
Wouter De Soete, Manager
Tel: 0474 80 65 67