Philadelphia based biotech company LucasPye BIO has been named in Business Worldwide Magazine’s annual list of Top 20 Most Innovative Companies to Watch in 2020.
The program is a celebration of trailblazing organizations who are changing the game in their respective industries and altering the corporate landscape. From a wide range of sectors, these companies are at the cutting edge of breakthrough technologies, innovation and modernized business structures. Those included in the list have a shared goal of developing revolutionary products and technology that drives scalable business models and disrupts established industries and markets.
Led by dynamic industry leader Tia Lyles-Williams, LucasPye BIO is all about breaking down barriers and changing the way the biotech/biopharma industry works. The start-up organization has already disrupted the sector’s traditional image, both in the way it operates and in its ethical, sustainable approach. As a Contract Development Manufacturing Organisation, the company manufactures biological drugs for biopharmaceutical companies – generally prescription drugs used to treat serious viruses and/or diseases such as Cancer, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Hepatitis, Crohn’s Disease, Hemophilia, Lupus, etc. – to supply their inventory requirements for Human Clinical Trials as well as the Global Commercial Market.
Already this year LucasPye BIO has been recognised as one of the Top 10 CMOs in 2020 by Pharma Tech Outlook Magazine, adding to a growing list of accolades.
Currently it takes an average of 15 years for biopharmaceuticals to reach a commercial market, and the industry has been notoriously slow to embrace digital manufacturing processes. Paper documentation is still the norm, which along with time-consuming manufacturing processes adds to lengthy time delays.
It’s also clear that Big Pharma controls access to the market, limiting new drugs by purchasing them and then shelving them when they are superior to their proprietary drug products that are undergoing clinical development for the commercial market. LucasPye BIO’s mission is to change all this for the better, along with speeding up the time it takes for new drugs to gain Regulatory Approval. Already the company is forging ahead by reducing the average 15 years down to six or seven, cutting the time it takes for drugs to reach commercial markets by as much as 50%. It’s also revolutionising digital automation processes through the implementation of electronic documentation and mobile apps in the form of digital trackers, and is the first CDMO to use ‘MasterControl,’ an e-documentation & digital quality management platform which enables real-time tracking of all drug development & bioprocessing operations.
LucasPye BIO is a definite gamechanger; helping biopharmaceutical companies get their products to market in record time while driving down financial expenditure. But what makes the company particularly refreshing is that the biotechnology and biopharmaceutical industry is generally regarded as a Caucasian-male oriented profession. Tia is following in the footsteps of Dr. Percy Lavon Julian, research chemist and scientist who overcame racial prejudices and hardship barriers to become the first African-American owner of a biopharmaceutical company. Sixty-five years on, Tia is proud to be the first African-American female CEO owning and leading an organization of this kind.