Balancing velocity and security of supply. Scaling up small molecule drug substance manufacture from Phase II to Commercial
Recorded: December 2025
About our CMC Webinar on Small Molecule Drug Substance Manufacturing
This webinar will explore market demand and trends for small molecule drug substance late phase manufacture and supply.
Speakers include noted CMC consultant James Bruno who will give a brief overview of market dynamics and what the key needs of clients are who are transitioning into late phase and commercial small molecule drug substance production.
Dr Paul Quigley (Director Process Chemistry and Manufacture, Pharmaron) will give an overview of what is critical in terms of scale-up considerations (process scale-up fit for phase, process analytical technology, process safety, economy, velocity, materials science and technology selection).
Finally, Chris Harley (Associate Director of Manufacturing, Pharmaron) will discuss manufacturing criteria (process optimisation, green metrics, technical transfer, modelling for scale, equipment selection) for successfully transitioning to commercial manufacturing.
What You’ll Learn
Attendees will gain a deeper understanding of:
- Overview of market dynamics and what clients’ key needs are going into late phase and commercial drug substance production
- Overview of the critical needs of scale-up consideration
- Manufacturing criteria for successfully transitioning to commercial manufacturing
Speakers:
James Bruno, CMC Consultant
James Bruno started his professional career supporting manufacturing and process improvements while attending graduate school. He moved on to formulation development where he supported a product line of clays and other thickening agents. He recognized that as he was completing his graduate work in chemistry, he was doing more on the business side and went back and completed his MBA.
His first position outside of the lab was working in business development for a European CMO. After several years in the position, he had the opportunity to work for a French CMO and start their US business. He continued working for twenty years in various CMOs and continued to increase his responsibilities.
In 2002, he started Chemical and Pharmaceutical Solutions, Inc which is focused primarily on working with small pharmaceutical companies to develop both their APIs and their dosages. He supports their chemical development as well as the regulatory requirements.
He has traveled extensively worldwide and continues to work with small pharma companies. He has authored many papers over the years and given lectures on various technologies and business topics..
Dr Paul Quigley, Director Process Development and Manufacturing, Pharmaron
Paul previously built up a new process development and drug substance manufacturing team at Quotient Sciences, was head of Technology Transfer for Johnson Matthey Ltd. and was head of New Product Introduction and Head of Technical Services for Shasun (now Sterling Pharma Solutions).
Paul has over 20 years’ experience in the Fine Chemical and Pharmaceutical industries in a variety of senior management roles, covering Technical Management of UK Sites, and Senior Project and Operational roles within a number of international organizations including ICI, Schering Plough, Clariant, Johnson Matthey and Rhodia. Paul graduated with a PhD in Natural Product Chemistry from University College Dublin in 1988 and with an MBA from Warwick Business School in 2000. He has co-authored several papers in the areas of Biocatalysis, Organic Synthesis, Polymer Chemistry and Natural Product Chemistry, and has generated several Patents in this area. Paul is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Association of MBAs.
Christopher Harley – Director, Manufacturing Technologies, Pharmaron
Christopher Harley is the Director of the Manufacturing Technologies group at the Pharmaron Coventry, Rhode Island, US site and is responsible for oversight of project management and engineering support for technical transfer, site engineering, and process safety management. Chris has worked at the Coventry site for over 18 years, working extensively in areas of commercial manufacturing support. During this time, he was the lead receiving engineer for the technical transfer of several generic APIs and implemented several successful post approval changes to existing API manufacturing processes, targeting the improvement of CoGs. Additionally, he established the site cleaning validation and continued process verification programs following lifecycle validation principles.