Marion Kuhn Vice President, Global Business Management Pharma Solutions BASF PHARMA SOLUTIONS
What solutions have been most in demand from BASF Pharma’s US customers and what are the trends driving demand?
Over the last number of years, we have seen that our customers are now searching for collaboration and joint innovation with a strategic partner, rather than just simply searching for a supplier. In the biopharma field, for example, we are actively collaborating with customers and the industry to address the challenge of reducing variability in raw materials. By utilizing high-quality processing aids and excipients, troubleshooting can be simplified, thereby accelerating product development.
Additionally, we actively work with customers to develop new processing aids and excipients for biopharma processes. Can you detail a couple of trends likely to drive the pharma ingredients segment of the pharma industry in 2024?
In 2024 and even into the foreseeable future, we see digitalization and especially AI playing a key role not only in the manufacturing of pharmaceutical products, but also in many other areas like formulation development and regulatory compliance.
Increasing the speed of pharmaceutical development at every stage is becoming a key trend for our customers. To meet this need, BASF has developed several best-in-class digital tools, called Virtual Pharma Assistants (VPAs). The goal of our VPAs is to speed up the drug-development process, to support a science-based selection of key formulation ingredients, and to make quality and regulatory compliance easier and more efficient. What will be the main priorities for BASF Pharma Solutions in 2024?
In 2024, BASF Pharma’s priorities are to continue to listen to the customer, research investments that drive our competitiveness, and expand our product, digital, and service offerings.
For the biopharma industry, we are already continuing to build on our strong expertise in surfactant chemistry, chemical manufacturing, and biopharma application in order to broaden our portfolio of fit-for-use ingredients for Cell Culture, Downstream Processing, and Formulation. We are collaborating even more closely with industry leaders on tailor-made solutions for this emergent market.
Elizabeth Grove Chief Sustainability Officer LUBRIZOL
Can you discuss the importance of sustainability and ESG for both customers and investors and how Lubrizol balances sustainability with performance and efficacy?
Sustainability in the pharma space primarily means efficiency in delivery, and that is what our products can bring to customers. Lubrizol introduced two new pharma excipient products in 2023 with great sustainability profiles: Apinovex, a polyacrylic acid excipient that enhances solubility and allows for the development of more efficient oral dosage forms with high, stable drug loading; and Apisolex, an amino-acid-based, solubility-enhancing excipient for injectable drug formulations. Apisolex can increase the solubility of hydrophobic APIs by up to 50,000 fold to effectively increase its bioavailability for better absorption. We are focused on supercharging the delivery of APIs so that we can increase the drug’s efficacy, reducing the amount of excipient material needed, and ultimately enhancing sustainability for our customers.
In the manufacturing process, Lubrizol’s carbomers and polycarbophils enable our customers to use less energy and water during processing. That’s because they can be processed using dry compression, dry granulation, and wet granulation which still requires less water. Because the tablets can be smaller, our customers get a higher yield for the energy that is used. Lubrizol is also focused on sustainability in our manufacturing and we have set the target to reduce our combined Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 20% by 2030. What will be the main challenges and opportunities for specialty chemicals companies operating in the life sciences space in 2024?
Adding more regulation around sustainability to the existing regulatory requirements for life sciences applications will be one challenge. More governments are requiring companies to report their Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG numbers and holding each party in the value chain accountable. So ensuring that we are ready for that level of transparency – up and down the value chain - will become more important.
From an opportunity standpoint, as we see the normalization of ESG and sustainability becoming a component of the value proposition, companies that can deliver products that help their customers meet their sustainability goals will have favorable market advantages. ESG has moved on from a buzzword to something actionable, measurable, and differentiating.