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The biopharmaceutical industry is entering its fourth decade and growing in size and importance. Revenue is growing, product pipelines are becoming more robust, and a variety of innovative business models are being implemented. Biopharmaceuticals play a significant role in the US economy and health care system, and major pharmaceutical firms are increasingly acquiring biopharmaceutical firms, perceiving that biotechnology is the future of medicine in this country and the world. However, although the science of biotechnology is advancing rapidly, the manufacturing and logistics of biotechnology is not necessarily keeping pace. There is a tremendous opportunity to help the biopharmaceutical industry achieve its potential, by more efficiently designing, operating, and managing its production, logistics, and supply chain processes. The promise of biopharmaceuticals to play a key role in the healthcare system of the future requires systems that can produce and deliver products safely, reliably, and cost effectively to patients, while allowing biopharmaceutical firms to successfully navigate the many risks inherent in the industry.

About ten years ago, in response to the need for firms to focus on, and invest in, effective supply chain and logistics management, the National Science Foundation established the I/UCRC for Excellence in Logistics and Distribution (CELDi). CELDi is an Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC) consisting of 9 major research universities and more than 30 member organizations that conducts research and develops integrated solutions for logistics and distribution problems using modeling and analysis. The Initiative for Research in Biopharmaceutical Operations (IRBO) is a research site within CELDi focusing on production systems, logistics systems, supply chain, inventory, and distribution within biopharmaceutical firms . Research in operations requires the input of experts across disciplines, and typically involves investigations at the sites of participating companies – IRBO provides a hub for this type of interaction for the biopharmaceutical industry. IRBO works with member firms to design and manage operations in novel and effective ways, understand and utilize emerging concepts in biopharmaceutical operations management, and contribute to the development of the state-of-the-art of biopharmaceutical operations. In addition, CELDi membership provide IRBO industrial members with a unique opportunity to learn from other industries, and to leverage the mix of skills across member institutions to discover and invent new approaches for addressing the challenges the industry faces.

CELDi UC Berkeley
Director Philip Kaminsky
Dept. of  Industrial Engineering & Operations Research
University of California at Berkeley
4141 Etcheverry Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720-1777
(510) 642-4927
kaminsky@ieor.berkeley.edu