The biomanufacturing sector is a cornerstone of Europe’s pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, driving the development of innovative therapies such as gene and cell therapy. However, the rapid growth and evolving nature of this field have highlighted a significant skills gap that could hinder progress. Addressing this gap is critical to sustaining industrial development and ensuring the availability of advanced therapeutic solutions in the market.
“Biomanufacturing products will account for more than half of the therapeutic solutions in the market within the next five to ten years,” says Karim Vissandjee, CEO of Campus Biotech Digital. The sector’s rapid growth underscores the urgency of addressing the skills gap to ensure these cutting-edge therapies can be developed and delivered effectively.
Challenges in biomanufacturing skills
The biomanufacturing industry faces significant shortages in skills in a number of areas, including regulatory affairs, quality assurance, manufacturing operations, and digital expertise. “In the field of biomanufacturing, we are missing a lot of talent,” says Cedric Volanti, Vice President & General Manager of Viral Vector Services at Thermo Fisher Scientific. “It’s really a source of disruption for the business. We need all types of profiles; very educated people, such as pharmacists, scientists, specialists in regulatory affairs, but we also need logisticians, people that work as operators and technicians in the manufacturing area,” he continues.
Volanti also stresses the importance of regulatory training and GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) awareness: “It’s not just about manufacturing; it’s about manufacturing under GMP, which requires specific documentation and data integrity skills.”
This complexity requires a multidisciplinary approach, combining skills from different domains to meet the evolving needs of the industry. To address these challenges, industry leaders are implementing a range of strategies aimed at bridging the skills gap and developing a more versatile and skilled workforce.
The industry response to the skills gap
Recognising the urgency of addressing the skills shortage, industry leaders have taken it upon themselves to bridge the gap and cultivate a more capable and diverse biomanufacturing workforce.
As a result, several initiatives have been launched in Europe to overcome the lack of specific training. One of these is the EU Biotech Campus, a multi-operator, state-of-the-art training centre and business accelerator expected to be operational in 2025 near Charleroi in Belgium.
“It should be a key element to secure the development of what is today one of the major economic sectors of the country,” says Didier Malherbe, Chairman of the Board of BCI PHARMA and former CEO of this initiative. “We start from the needs of the industry and then we go to see what training we can offer to create enough candidates to fill the gap,” he explains.
This industry-driven approach ensures that training is directly aligned with the skills demanded by the biomanufacturing sector.
In France, a similar approach called Campus Biotech Digital was created to achieve a similar goal.
“We thought that it was good to have a large consortium building and working together, to see how we can create extremely agile curriculums in order to help all those companies face those challenges,” explains Karim Vissandjee, CEO of Campus Biotech Digital.
For Volanti, long-term solutions also include working closely with universities to create applied master’s programmes tailored to industry needs.
That’s easier said than done, though, because the skills needed in biomanufacturing are often diverse and complex.
In search of a multi-skilled talent pool
The urgent need for specialised training programmes to address the immediate skill shortages in biomanufacturing is clear. “We need help on the short term with specific training in areas like cell culture and purification, along with a strong regulatory aspect, because we are operating under GMP,” notes Volanti.
Developing a specific understanding of quality assurance is also essential. “There is a specific behaviour we need to develop around the quality because, in fact, most of the issues that we are facing are cross-contaminations in biomanufacturing. We need to prepare our future apprentices to work on it,” says Vissandjee.
Another critical skills gap often highlighted by biomanufacturing leaders is in the area of digitalisation, a key area for improving the efficiency, accuracy, and scalability of the production process. “Our aim is to bring the aspect of digitalisation into the core areas and needs of biomanufacturing,” explains Nirlipta Panda, Vice President and Global Head of Industry, Life Sciences at Capgemini Engineering. “We are training more highly skilled candidates who are not just skilled in any one particular area but can bring multifaceted skills with a digital skillset and with regulatory and compliance know-how.” She also notes that technologies such as AI, machine learning, and data science are critical for advancing the sector.
“Digital training, including simulations and virtual reality, can help future learners simulate and adapt to the specific behaviours required in GMP environments,” Vissandjee also observes. This approach can increase the effectiveness of training and attract younger talent to the field, a key aspect for the future of the industry.
Crossing the industry borders
Attracting talent from other sectors is an important challenge for the biomanufacturing industry. “We have to make our job as biotechnologists attractive for the young generation,” explains Malherbe. “We probably need some leaders to attract the attention of young people from other industries to really have the willingness to join biomanufacturing. So we certainly have a big effort of communication to do.”
As part of this effort, strategically tapping into available talent pools could be the key to success. In Belgium, for example, the government’s decision to close all its nuclear power plants has created a void of talent ready to move into new fields. “All the nuclear sector will shut down soon, so we have thousands of people perfectly aware of what safety and security is,” says Malherbe “These people are quite prepared to move to a new sector with a very short-term training program. So we have to be flexible to move people from one sector to another.”
This approach is not a last-resort strategy for the biomanufacturing industry, but a voluntary practice that adds value to the sector. “In fact, you have many sectors with competencies which could be extremely helpful in biomanufacturing,” says Vissandjee. “We are thinking about aeronautics or automotive, where quality is extremely important. And we believe that by adding additional training, we can prepare them to move swiftly to the biomanufacturing area and cover the gap we are facing.”
If answered quickly and with the right approach, many experts agree that the skills gap in biomanufacturing could be a new opportunity for growth rather than a barrier to its future.
Using the skills gap as a learning opportunity
The biomanufacturing skills gap presents a significant challenge, but it also offers an opportunity for innovation and collaboration. “It’s a unique opportunity to open up the industry. And to open the door to digital, to open the door to other industries will enable us to attract good talent to strengthen the biomanufacturing skillset,” notes Vissandjee.
For Malherbe, this culture of openness is not new to biomanufacturing and could be a hidden strength that needs to be preserved: “In my previous job, we welcomed people from the food industry, the distribution industry, and the textile industry, and they are coming with another mentality, an out-of-the-box mentality, which creates a lot of synergies and opportunities to be better in what we are doing.”
By leveraging partnerships, promoting lifelong learning, and fostering multidisciplinary skills, the industry can build a robust and future-ready workforce. But to succeed, the collective efforts of industry stakeholders, educational institutions, and policymakers will be essential to bridge this gap and sustain the growth and innovation of Europe’s biomanufacturing sector.