Revolutionizing Drug Discovery & Manufacturing through Advanced Bio Systems

In this episode, Behzad Mahdavi, Senior Vice President of Biopharma Manufacturing and Life Sciences Tools at Ginkgo Bioworks, talks about the groundbreaking work done with their platform technology to optimize drug discovery and manufacturing.

Ginkgo performs highly automated biological experiments on new modalities built on advanced complex biological systems, enabling the rapid development of advanced therapies in manufacturing settings. Behzad explains why this novel approach integrates manufacturing and biological optimization to deliver high-quality, life-saving functions that can be made faster, safer, and cheaper. He also shares how any company within the pharma industry seeking to optimize drug development can use the Ginkgo platform.

Tune in to learn more about Ginkgo’s work and resources for development optimization!

Summary:

Technology is disrupting the traditional way of developing drugs for the better.

About Behzad Mahdavi:

Behzad Mahdavi is the Senior Vice President of Biopharma Manufacturing & Life Sciences Tools at Ginkgo Bioworks. He is a global strategic growth leader with extensive experience in creating and leading impactful, innovative, patient-centric growth strategies within challenging environments in the biopharma, cell, gene therapy, and personalized medicine sectors.

He has operated in various positions like executive, CEO, chairman, board member, investor, entrepreneur, and founder. He has worked both for large organizations like CRIBIQ, Lonza, and Catalent, as well as the smaller ones, including the startups like Exosomics, and Electron Technologies in various life sciences fields ranging from early cancer detection to biopharma with a high focus on the cell and gene therapy and manufacturing of new modalities. 

He joined Ginkgo as an SVP of the BioPharma Manufacturing and Life Science Tools last August, leading Ginkgo’s commercial effort in the growing areas of bioreagents, cell and gene therapy, and new biopharmaceutical. 

On the educational side, he studied in France, where he completed his chemical engineering school and master’s degrees, and then his Ph.D. in electrochemistry in Canada.

Things You’ll Learn:

• The addition of new therapeutic modalities in pharma is accelerating exponentially.
• The faster the growth of a novelty therapy, the more biologically complex it tends to be, and therefore, limited time to understand and optimize the biological component of the drug before getting it to market, causing a high cost of manufacturing at scale.
• Safety is always one of the main concerns in drug and technology development.
• People don’t usually appreciate the hundreds of drug candidates in clinical trials.
• When a drug reaches manufacturing, it’s too late to engage with its biological component.
• Ginkgo is a platform open and available to the pharma industry for their benefit and development.

Resources:

• Connect with and follow Behzad Mahdavi on LinkedIn.
• Follow Ginkgo Bioworks on LinkedIn.
• Explore the Ginkgo Bioworks Website!
• Reach out to Behzad at BMahdavi@GinkgoBioworks.com
• Connect with and follow co-host Kerri Anderson on LinkedIn.
• Connect with and follow co-host Samantha Black on LinkedIn.