As part of a new series, we’ll interviewing different people in the biopharmaceutical R&D space – including scientists, founders and noteworthy leaders – to show what day-to-day life looks like for them.
To kick this off, we recently interviewed Dr.Alvaro Goyanes (pictured), Co-founder and Development Director of London-based FabRx Ltd., a specialist biotech company at the forefront of 3D printing technologies and personalised medicines.
Please tell our readers about yourself
I am Dr Alvaro Goyanes and my current role at FabRx is Development Director and Lead Project Researcher. I am a pharmacist by training, I hold a PhD in pharmaceutical technology from University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain) and I have been at University College London (UCL) – School of Pharmacy as a researcher and as a honorary lecturer for more than 8 years. I have over 10 years’ industry experience in research and academia.
I can’t say there was a specific light bulb moment. During my post-doctoral studies here at UCL School of Pharmacy, I was involved in the investigating the potential use of 3D printing to make medicines. It was then that we zeroed on using Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) that we saw a potential business opportunity, and the idea grew from there.
Firstly, there is no such thing as a typical day. However, there are things that I do most days. Typically, I start once I am done with my morning routine (exercise, shower, coffee and time to read newspapers), I head off into my home office to get a head start on my emails before any other work starts. Typically, I may have 180 – 200 emails.
I may have business calls with the leadership team or investors, which I attend to first thing. Otherwise, my most important task is providing customer support for FabRx’s M3DIMAKER™ and the necessary communications side of things. Being responsible for development, I will be working to understand how they use our products and obtaining their suggestions as to how to improve. I may also pop into the laboratory to investigate something in relation to the development programme but this is dependent on other things going on.
Obviously, being a start-up company, a good part of my work is supporting the rest of the team with respect to the company’s long-term goals. A large part of this will be meeting all sorts of stakeholders, potential investors, customers, to build relationships and communicate our mission and what we are seeking to achieve.
And finally, I have internal meetings to support our team members in their roles and to feedback on proposed improvements to our products and research programmes, which is very critical to a start-up company such as ours.
Can you tell us more about M3DIMAKER™?
M3DIMAKER is the world’s first pharmaceutical printer in the market that we developed at FabRx. It is designed to prepare personalised medicines close to the patients, and it is mainly oriented to be placed in pharmacies and hospital, to prepare the medicines under GMP conditions. Since it was designed by us, it is specially adapted to print medicines safe and easy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=404atdYX-nk&ab_channel=FabRx
As you well know, for any initiative to succeed, company leaders must have a set of clear priorities to make it happen. I think the most challenging thing for me is prioritising every day and getting all issues aligned to the startup’s long-term mission. I find that there are always a million things I could be working on, be it R&D, communications, selling, motivating the research team, setting strategy, the press…. So figuring out what is worth my time and taking that decision not knowing the end outcome is not easy. As a start-up in a niche space, we do not have a playbook, which is great but also leads to a lot of decision fatigue in this respect.
Without a doubt, the most rewarding part of the role is seeing the company grow and create an impact in patient’s lives. We really believe in personalised medicine and think that 3D printing is the best technology to reach it. But make no mistake, founding something is hard work, and there are some dark moments, but what lifts my spirit is when we get feedback from the doctors and users. This is worth all the hard work.
I do not pay attention to labels, such as entrepreneur this or that. What has always motivated me is to make a positive impact to my community and those I interact with daily.
Be prepared to wear a lot of different hats and face challenges.
You can find out more about FabRx and its products from www.FabRx.co.uk
While plant-based diets continue to grow in popularity, the desire to live and act more sustainably and healthfully is on the rise.
If there’s one take-home message for the general public about the coronavirus vaccines approved in the U.S., it’s that they are remarkably effective.
Carbomers are an important group of excipients that every well-meaning formulator should become familiar with. Here is a quick run-through of what they are, uses and formulation tips.
Carbomers are synthetic, chemically related, high molecular weight, nonlinear polymers based on crosslinked acrylic acid chemistry.
Originally developed by BF Goodrich and trademarked CARBOPOL® in 1958. These materials (especially, Carbopol 940, 941, and 934) revolutionised topical products by enabling formulators to create new types of product previously not possible.
The general chemical structure of carbomers is shown below:
Picture credits: Silverson FLASHBLEND Mixer
The development of antibodies to the COVID-19 virus has been the great long-term hope of ending the pandemic. However, immune system turncoats are also major culprits in severe cases of COVID-19, Yale scientists report in the journal Nature.
These autoantibodies target and react with a person’s tissues or organs similar to ones that cause autoimmune diseases such as lupus or rheumatoid arthritis.
Acacia Gum and Bentonite
Amcor, the Zurich-based packaging technology provider, announced on 29th April the start of customer trials of its highly anticipated recyclable polyethylene-based thermoform blister packaging, The new packaging is designed not only to meet the stringent standards of pharmaceutical packaging it also creates a more sustainable alternative for this highly demanded packaging type.
According to the company, AmSky™ achieves up to 70% reduction in carbon footprint, when compared to packaging alternatives on the market today. This is achieved by eliminating polyvinyl chloride and substituting it with a Polyethylene (PE) thermoform blister and lidding film.
The use of polyvinyl chloride makes attempts to recycle packaging more difficult. By removing it – while retaining all the benefits of pre-existing blister packaging – Amcor hopes to avail a more sustainable and environmentally friendly solution.
To speed up up development, Amcor has elected to co-develope and trial AmSky with a number several large pharmaceutical companies. It is expected that AmSky will be available in the second half of 2022.
Peter Konieczny, Amcor’s Chief Commercial Officer, said: “Amcor is deploying our unique innovation capabilities to solve the biggest and most significant issues in packaging today. With AmSky Amcor has signalled our commitment to breakthrough innovation in the healthcare space.”
William Jackson, Amcor’s Chief Technology Officer for Flexibles, commented: “This exciting solution is a result of Amcor’s continued focus on advanced technology and growth, using the entire power of our global R&D network to bring recyclable solutions to our customers.”
