Some people say the pharmaceutical industry moves slowly – but when we zoom out and measure in decades, the progress seems extraordinary.

Welcome to Chapter 5.

By Steve Burton, President and Chief Scientific Officer, Astrea Bioseparations

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Companies are not just developers, manufacturers and suppliers of products, of course; they are people. Many talented individuals have contributed to Astrea Bioseparations over the years. It is particularly gratifying to have seen a number of staff who joined in relatively junior positions evolve with the company and move onto senior positions here or elsewhere.

Watching the company, in all its guises, survive and thrive brings me a great deal of pride. But perhaps what brings me the most pride is the fact that there are around 20 life-changing therapeutic products being manufactured today using Astrea Bioseparations' technology. I am delighted to say that we have provided solutions to companies that had no other options. Put another way, we’ve enabled drugs to be brought to market that otherwise would not have been viable, helping countless patients along the way. Nearly four decades ago, that’s exactly what I set out to do.

I often joke that I’m the company historian. But, in all seriousness, time on the circuit does offer great insight and some real perspective. I’ve seen a lot change in the pharma field over the years. I’m old enough to remember university lectures on advanced molecular biology that excitedly told us how it was “now possible” to encode a human protein in E. coli. To watch the rise of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies in my lifetime is remarkable.

In more recent years, gene therapies have proven themselves scientifically. And I can easily imagine a future where some of the protein therapeutics that are indispensable today will face obsolescence. Consider hemophilia A; until quite recently, it was typically treated with factor VIII obtained from human-donated plasma. Today, most factor VIII is recombinant and made in bioreactors. However, several companies are investigating hemophilia gene therapy; if these innovations are successfully commercialized, it could signify yet another evolution in treatment.

I will certainly be following this story out of personal and scientific, if not professional, interest.

Missed Chapter 4: A goddess emerges? Read it here. 

Read Chapter 6: Future bioseparations