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Interphex 2006 Preview: The Best of the “Phex”

By Paul Thomas, Managing Editor

FoodProcessing.com

This year's event builds upon the success of the 2005 show, with increases in both exhibitors and educational sessions.

For the pharmaceutical manufacturing crowd, the annual Interphex show in New York City is as much a sign of spring as the coming of robins, tulips and baseball. Interphex 2006 — March 21-23 at the Javits Convention Center — promises once again to be bigger and better than last year, with more exhibitors, more targeted speaker sessions, and three stimulating keynotes to give shape and definition to the event.

Keynote addresses for 2006 include:

• Tuesday, 8:45 a.m.: Greg Simon, president of the non-profit FasterCures, makes his case for speeding up the development and delivery of medications for patients with life-threatening diseases, and outlines the tools needed to do it.



• Wednesday at 8:45 a.m.: Robert Bazell, chief science and health correspondent for NBC Nightly News, will host a panel discussion on the speed, safety and efficiency challenges facing drug manufacturers today. Joining Bazell will be executives Peter Loescher of GE Healthcare BioSciences, Richard Siegel of Centocor Biologics and Patrick Yang of Genentech.



• Thursday, 8:45 a.m.: The regulatory perspective this year is handled by Scott Gottleib, M.D., FDA’s deputy commissioner for medical and scientific affairs. The topic: agency initiatives for improving drug development and the public health.

Four on the floors

Visitors to the Javits session rooms and exhibition halls will again have four tracks down which to tread. Here’s a quick look at what the speaker sessions have to offer for each track:

PharmaFacilities: The Need for Speed. The facilities track has sessions on Lean, and on Green — check out O’Neal, Inc.’s Tim Crosby’s “Designing Green” talk on Tuesday afternoon — but one dominant theme is how to design and build in record time. Two noteworthy presentations:

• Wednesday morning, Ole Broch Nielson of NNE A/S instructs how to build a vaccine facility from the ground up in “11 fast-tracked months.”
• Thursday morning, Cook Pharmica’s Jerry Arthur recounts how Cook’s new biotech site was built and validated in a mere 26 months.

PharmaIT: The Paper Chase. The PharmaIT sessions not only look good on paper, but on “paperless” as well. Don’t miss:

• VelQuest’s John Helfrich on the “GMP Electronic Notebook System — PAT Technology for QC Lab Operations,” on Wednesday afternoon.
• Thursday, Taratec’s Ray Lockard tours the “Paperless Shop Floor.”

IT will also be heavy on radio frequency identification (RFID), of course. One of the better figures to be “RFID Bionics — RFID-Enabled Products and Services for Pharmaceuticals,” led by RFID Technical Institute’s Ann Grackin and ChainLink Research’s Carla Reed.

PharmaManufacturing: Beyond PAT. Process Analytical Technology disccusions will fill the session rooms, but the manufacturing track has much more to offer. Several talks devoted to regulatory issues should be well worth the price of admission:

• Aegis Analytical’s Justin Neway assesses the impact of FDA’s risk-based model on pharma and biotech manufacturers, Wednesday afternoon.
  
• Later that day, Simon Forder of JM Hyde Consulting will comment on “Cleaning Compliance Points to Consider.”
  
• Thursday, get an overview of “Regulatory Asset Management,” with James Erickson of Blue Mountain Quality Resources.

PharmaSourcing: All About Relationships. Effective partnering is more important than ever. This track offers plenty of help in how to source right. One that sounds like a can’t-miss: “Global Innovation and New Products: ‘Virtual’ Teams, ‘Real’ Money,” by Prof. Sushil Bhatia of Suffolk University.

Put on your walking shoes

When you’ve had enough of PowerPoints and laser pointers, head to the exhibition halls for what’s new in equipment and technology. Assorted pavilions will help you channel your energies. They include:

• Automation
• Packaging
• RFID
• R&D
• Contamination Control
• International
• Rockwell Automation Partners

When you drop by the booths, you’ll find plenty of tote bags, slinkies and other show freebies. More importantly, there will be the latest offerings from the industry’s top vendors.

Following is a preview of some of the best stops on the show floor:

CLEAN and STERILE PROCESSING

Sterile Hose Labeling System
Eliminate unsanitary tags! The AdvantaLABEL identification system uses pure silicone to encase labels and optional color stripes for coding purposes. Labels carry customer-supplied text and use different color-stripe combinations to identify departments, materials within the hose, temperatures and other data. Also on display, disposable sterile batch filling assemblies, which eliminate leaks and entrapment problems found with the use of barb-type fittings.
AdvantaPure, Booth 1637

Fluid Handling Components