Vaccine Journey: Bench to Market

Josephine is the senior consultant for bioprocessing strategy at Merck, focusing on vaccine & mRNA modalities, where she stays on top of the market trends, fosters customer collaborations, supports innovation, leads marketing initiatives, generates publications, and transforms insights into sustainable business strategies. With over 14 years of international biopharma working experience, Josephine has accumulated practical industry knowledge and technical skills from various positions ranging from R&D, application, training, marketing, and strategy. Josephine obtained both bachelor's and master's degrees in bio-resources and agriculture from the National Taiwan University, focusing on protein & molecular science.

Subhasis supports the technical consultation for downstream processing for the APAC region. He has a Ph.D. in biochemistry with post-doctoral experience from The Ohio State University, Columbus, USA. He has contributed to several publications in international peer-reviewed journals and conducted presentations in numerous national and international Conferences.

Dr. Ravi Ganapathy has more than 29 years of professional work experience in the hospital, biotech research, and vaccine industry. He has hands-on experience in development, manufacturing of recombinant (bacterial/yeast-derived), bacterial, and viral vaccines. Having led R&D, production, and quality assurance teams, he has an extensive understanding of manufacturing and R&D-related quality & regulatory requirements for the commercialization of biotech products, especially vaccines, and the related GLP & GMP documentation. He joined Hilleman Laboratories Singapore Pte. Ltd. as the Director–CMC R&D in April 2022.

Maria Elena Bottazzi is an internationally recognized tropical and emerging disease vaccinologist, global health advocate, and co-creator of a patent-free, open-science COVID-19 vaccine technology that led to the development of Corbevax, a COVID-19 vaccine for the world. She pioneers and leads innovative partnerships for the advancement of a robust vaccine development portfolio tackling diseases that affect disproportionally the world’s poorest populations, making significant contributions to catalyze policies and disseminate scientific information to reach a diverse set of audiences. In 2022, alongside physician scientist Peter Hotez, she was nominated by Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher of Texas for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Dea Marsendah is a vaccine practitioner, biotech enthusiast, and life science professional. She has 13 years of experience in vaccine manufacturing which has given her a wealth of knowledge and deep understanding in the field of vaccine production, particularly Hib and Typhoid vaccines. Most recently, she has been involved in Covid-19 scale-up vaccine manufacturing. After completing her master's degree in biotechnology from Bandung Institute of Technology, her enthusiasm for learning motivated her to enroll in the Professional MBA Program at Tanri Abeng University in Indonesia. She has spoken at some significant international conferences on bioprocesses and biopharmaceuticals. Between those, Dea enjoys exploring the world's deep sea as scuba diver.

Bin Wang is the director of the technical & scientific solutions group at Merck, where he leads strong globally networked teams including MSAT, technical operation, tech service, and field service. This group is the technical function of bioprocessing and provides comprehensive solutions covering process development and scaling-up, FCD & process engineering, technic inquiry & consultation, HW qualification & implementation. Prior to this position, Bin led our Asia biomanufacturing team to support PD, scaling up, and implementation activities for Asia biopharmaceutical companies. Between 2016 to 2017, Bin Wang worked in the Merck USA MSAT team to provide technical solutions for biopharmaceutical companies in North America.