Topics Report on the BioJapan 2020 About the Biopharmaceutical Committee Seminar
BioJapan 2020 was held at Pacifico Yokohama (Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture) from October 14 to 16, 2020. In addition to "Regenerative Medicine Japan 2020," which was held in conjunction with BioJapan 2019, "healthTECH JAPAN 2020," which integrated the "Healthcare Zone" and "Digital Zone" that were the focus of BioJapan, was held this year. This year, amid the spread of the new coronavirus, the exhibition was held as a hybrid of real and online sessions. 794 companies (146 companies from 22 overseas countries) participated in the exhibition, and more than 13,700 people visited the exhibition. Although there were concerns about a decrease in the number of participants and companies this year, the number of participants was the same size as in 2015-2016, and we are confident that the efforts of the secretariat and the open innovation orientation, which seeks a wide range of business opportunities, including overseas, led to the success of this event. The Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association of Japan (PMAJ) also participated as one of the sponsoring organizations, and many of its member companies made presentations, while many companies and organizations exhibited alliance booths and actively exchanged information and ideas.
Seminar venue
Biopharmaceutical Committee Seminar
For the past four years, the Biopharmaceutical Committee of the Pharmaceutical Consortium of Japan (PPCJ) has been holding an initiative titled "The Frontiers of Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing" with the aim of discussing the introduction of AI into biopharmaceutical manufacturing from the respective perspectives of universities and industry. The latest topics have been discussed in 2018 on "Continuous Production of Biopharmaceuticals" and in 2019 on "AI-applied Smart Factories". 2020 will be the fourth installment of the "Are There Enough Biotech Talent? -Biopharmaceuticals' Modalities Diversify," on October 15. In this seminar, we discussed the perspective of human resource development, which is the common ground underlying the seemingly unrelated issues of the diversification of modalities in the biopharmaceutical market and the innovation of next-generation manufacturing technologies, including the use of digital technologies in biomanufacturing.
The meeting proceeded with Kazuhisa Uchida, Professor at the Graduate School of Science, Technology and Innovation, Kobe University and Chairman of the Biopharmaceuticals Committee's Technical Working Group, serving as coordinator. In his overview of the current situation, Dr. Uchida commented, "Modalities are diversifying and expanding from narrowly defined biopharmaceuticals such as antibody drugs to gene therapy and regenerative medicine. However, the human resources to conduct research and development for these modalities are not something that can be allocated within the company so quickly. In addition, as the number of modalities increases, the development period must be shortened, and conventional R&D methods alone will not accelerate the process. However, it is also necessary to develop human resources with an understanding of process development and knowledge of information technology. Therefore, the development of human resources who can also conduct research and development of new modalities and who also possess IT skills will lead to improved productivity. Four presenters then gave their reports.
Mr. Kazuhisa Uchida, Chairman of Technical Working Committee, coordinator
Working Committee Chairman Watanabe presenting the results of the questionnaire survey
From the standpoint of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association of Japan (PMAJ), Yoshihiro Watanabe, Chairman of the Biopharmaceutical Committee, presented the results of a questionnaire survey on "human resource needs for the development and manufacture of biopharmaceuticals and regenerative medicine products," concluding that "personnel will be needed to manufacture and develop virus vectors for gene therapy and regenerative medicine. The presentation concluded that "there will be a need for personnel to develop viral vectors for gene therapy and regenerative medicine. From the Biologics Center for Research and Training (BCRET), a general incorporated association that is in a position to train biopharmaceutical personnel, Mr. Satoshi Toyoshima, Representative Director, gave a presentation on human resource development at BCRET, and introduced BCRET's accumulated experience and know-how in biopharmaceutical human resource development in Japan. He introduced BCRET's experience and know-how in biopharmaceutical human resource development in Japan. Two speakers from the digital side gave presentations on "Digitalizing Biopharma R&D - What type of skills are needed in the industry" by Hideki Shimohiro, Representative Director of the Japanese subsidiary of Gene Data, a foreign company that promotes IT in the R&D process of pharmaceutical companies and promotes more efficient R&D. He also spoke on the "Digitalization of Biopharma R&D - What type of skills are needed in the industry? Mr. Hideki Shimohiro, President of Gene Data in Japan, a foreign company that promotes efficiency in development, will talk about "Digitalizing Biopharma R&D - What type of skills are needed in the industry? Takeaki Doda, Professor at Osaka University's Organization for Co-Creation with Industry and Academia, gave a presentation on "Overseas Case Studies of Digital Transformation (DX) and Other Corporate Implementations". The two speakers stated that "DX will be promptly introduced to biopharmaceutical R&D and production sites in the near future, contributing to improved productivity, and that in order to implement DX, it is necessary to develop human resources who understand both the manufacturing process and IT sides of biopharmaceuticals, and who can work in harmony with each other. In order to promote these situations, it is important for the early success of the introduction of DX to share the same information with the company's management and to promote DX in cooperation with senior management, not to mention the understanding of the departments in charge at research centers, factories, and other workplaces.
While there were some restrictions due to the "three-density" nature of the conference, such as the inability to welcome speakers from overseas in 2020 due to COVID-19, and the fact that admission to the conference will be partially online, a broad range of discussions were held from different perspectives, and the venue was filled to capacity (approximately 100 participants).
Exhibition booth
The next BioJapan 2021 will be held October 13-15, 2021, at Pacifico Yokohama.
( Tetsushi Ito, Director, Pharmaceutical Affairs and Biopharmaceuticals, and Kazuhisa Uchida, Chairman, Technical Working Committee, Biopharmaceuticals Committee)