When I recently sat down with Andrew Skibo, regional VP of supply biologics, global engineering, and real estate at AstraZeneca (AZ), I was the guy with no experience. Sure, I have 20+ years of pharmaceutical industry experience, but after a few minutes of conversation, I learned that this exchange could only be described as one between a veteran and a rookie — and I was the latter.
Skibo has an impressive list of industry accomplishments, including overseeing large-scale capital projects that garnered two International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering (ISPE) facility of the year awards (FOYA) and two Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) Gold awards. But what you can’t conclude from someone’s CV is the skill with which they are able to communicate their wisdom. For instance, I found Skibo to be a patient and skilled communicator, putting me at ease by stating, “If I answer any of these questions in too much detail, stop and fine-tune me as to the level you need.” What follows are his insights on applying a risk-based approach to modeling and planning for biologics manufacturing capacity. Of course, he knows a thing or two about this topic, considering nearly half of AstraZeneca’s 2014 development pipeline falls into the large molecule (biologic) category.