Karoline Bechtold-Peters

Director, Science & Technology at Novartis

Speaker

Dr. Karoline Bechtold-Peters

is pharmacist and received her doctorate from the Ludwigs-Maximilians-University of Munich in Pharmaceutical Technology in 1994 for a thesis in the field of enteric-coated pancreatin pellets.

In 1994, Karoline started at Boehringer Ingelheim in Ingelheim as Head of Laboratory in Solid Dosage Forms, focusing on powder inhalation therapeutics. In this context, Karoline was instrumental in the development of the blockbuster Spiriva.

In 2000, she moved to the Business Unit Biopharmaceuticals of Boehringer Ingelheim and thus to Biberach to build-up Formulation Development of Therapeutic Proteins. In 2003 she was appointed 2003 Head of Global Clinical Supplies, Aseptic Process Development and Process Transfer.

After several years in this position, Karoline moved to Basel, Switzerland, in 2011, to join Hoffmann La-Roche and was assigned Head of Drug Product Clinical Supply Center Basel within Global Biologics Europe and was responsible for the production of biopharmaceutical clinical supplies both for Roche and Genentech. It became her core task to ramp up the brand new clinical lines for sterile vials and syringes covering initial inspections and initial batch production from 2011 to 2013. The expansion of the production to Antibody-Drug-Conjugates followed.

In 2016, Karoline joined Novartis Pharma AG in Basel to focus on more strategic and future-looking issues of Biopharmaceuticals as Senior Strategy and Technology Leader Pharmaceutics within Biologics Technical Development & Manufacturing (BTDM) and the team “BioFuture”. Since the reorganization of the Biologics business, Karoline has been part of the Scientific Offices Drug Product Development within Global Biologics & Cell and Gene Therapy as Director Science & Technology, representing the focus on Innovation and External Engagement.

Karoline is member of the board of directors of International Association for Pharmaceutical Technology (APV). Besides this she is active in several international organisations such as EBE/EFPIA, AAPS and PDA, and is frequently invited to contribute to conferences and papers or books.