The Bio-Process Systems Alliance (BPSA) announced on 6 October that it will realign its growing industry trade group with the pharmaceutical and biotechnology business communities. The group was originally formed within the plastics industry in 2005 as a business unit of SPI, The Plastics Industry Trade Association. Now it reestablishes itself as an independent trade association and continues its mission to encourage and accelerate the adoption and implementation of single-use manufacturing systems in the biopharmaceuticals industry.

“It was a difficult decision to move outside the traditional plastics industry,” said BPSA Chairman Jerry Martin, senior vice president of scientific affairs at Pall Life Sciences. “As highly specialized plastics manufacturers, our charter member companies found SPI to be an excellent host organization for the guidance and administrative services we required for our launch and infancy. Our needs began to shift in 2008, however, when BPSA started accepting biopharmaceutical and biotech companies into our membership ranks to establish a safe-harbor information exchange between end users of single-use systems and suppliers. Single-use technology end user companies fall outside of SPI's core constituency.”

“The timing is ideal for both organizations,” added Ken Bibbo, BPSA treasurer and vice president of operations for HyNetics Corporation. “At this stage in our growth cycle, BPSA is ready to seize new opportunities in the biopharmaceutical world just as SPI is honing its core missions of advocacy, communications, and business development initiatives for plastics. It is an exhilarating time of change — I know my company is excited to remain a member of both groups.”

“The BPSA is at the cutting edge of a sector poised for growth in the bioprocessing industry,” said SPI President and CEO Bill Carteaux. “SPI is proud to have served as the group's birthplace, and it was a pleasure to provide our legal, regulatory, and marketing expertise during its critical formative years. We are eager to maintain an affiliation and will seek out ways we can collaborate on joint programs that will bring mutual benefit to both organizations.”