H. Yvette Tang

Vice President, Drug Substance Technology
BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc

Dr. H. Yvette Tang was born and raised in Taiwan and is passionate with developing novel medicines to treat rare diseases.  She currently works as vice president of Drug Substance Technology organization at BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc, a biotech company that specialized in developing genetic disorder treatment.  Her team consists of a group of seventy scientists and engineers who design and implement scalable procedures for expression, production, and purification of biological and gene therapy products.  With over 25 years of industrial experiences following her doctoral work in Cancer Pharmacology at the University of Michigan, she has built and directed high performing teams and supported 6 commercial drug product launches including the first gene therapy drug for Hemophilia A.

Speech title & Synopsis

Adeno‐Associated Virus Production Platforms for Gene Therapy

Recombinant Adeno-Associated Virus (rAAV) vector manufacturing remains challenging in terms of yield, robustness, and scalability.  A more efficient and standardized production process is critical to enable the speed of drug development.  Two leading rAAV expression platforms are based on 1) transiently transfection of HEK293 and 2) baculovirus infection of Spodoptera frugiperda (Sf9) cells. This presentation will discuss the importance and considerations during platform development and selections as well as industrial findings of platform comparisons.