CHALFONT ST GILES, England--(BUSINESS WIRE)--GE Healthcare, the healthcare business of GE (NYSE: GE) announced today the official opening of its expanded Fast Trak Training Center in Shanghai, China. The opening ceremony was hosted by Kieran Murphy, CEO of GE Healthcare Life Sciences, and was attended by leading representatives from academia and the local biopharmaceutical and biotechnology industry.
GE Healthcare’s Fast Trak Training and Education Courses provide hands-on practical training in the latest technologies and strategies for start-to-finish bioprocessing, and are specifically designed to help manufacturers of biopharmaceuticals increase their process productivity and bring their product to market faster. The company’s Fast Trak Training Centers, which are also located in Germany, India, Japan, Singapore, and the US, are equipped with the latest technologies for bioprocessing, in an environment that closely replicates the industrial setting. GE Healthcare’s Fast Trak Training & Education team has over 20 years’ experience in providing training for bioprocess development and manufacturing.
By expanding the Fast Trak Center in Shanghai, GE Healthcare will be able to offer an increased number and variety of courses to meet the needs of the rapidly growing biopharmaceutical industry in China. The extended Center has been equipped with several new GE Healthcare technologies such as IN Cell and DeltaVision™ for cellular imaging and Biacore™ and Microcal™ tools for protein interaction studies, allowing the company to offer, for the first time, training in some of the latest techniques used in drug discovery and development. In addition to training, the Shanghai Fast Trak Center will also offer a full bioprocess development service to the industry, helping manufacturing professionals develop, optimize and refine their biopharmaceutical manufacturing processes for maximum productivity.
At the opening ceremony Mr Murphy also outlined GE Healthcare’s plans to launch an Educational Outreach Program for local university science students, in order to stimulate and encourage interest in the biopharmaceutical manufacturing industry. Called Biotech “Future Stars” Training Program, the Outreach Program will be based on standard Fast Trak training courses and will be delivered by GE Healthcare scientists and sector experts.
Mr Murphy said, “I’m delighted to be opening our upgraded and expanded training facility here today. Bigger and better facilities will help us to offer a much higher level of support to the biopharmaceutical industry here in China. The Chinese government has identified the development of the biopharmaceutical industry as one of the pillar industries in the country’s 12th 5 year plan of state, and our new investments here in Shanghai are aligned with that.“
The Fast Trak Center is located within the GE China Technology Center (CTC), an integrated multi-disciplinary research campus with more than 1,500 researchers in over 60 laboratories researching breakthrough technologies in key areas such as energy, materials science and imaging technologies.
Scientists and manufacturing professionals looking to view the courses on offer in Shanghai can find further information here. To register for a course click here.
About Fast Trak China Training & Education
Aimed at drug discovery scientists, process developers, manufacturing scientists, staff scientists, engineers, plant operators and support staff, Fast Trak training brings expertise in a wide variety of technologies and techniques used in biopharmaceutical manufacturing – for example process development, column packing, system control and membrane filtration - to help attendees maximize their capabilities and bring product to market faster. Worldwide, over 1,000 customers attend Fast Trak courses each year.
About GE Healthcare
GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our broad expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, drug discovery, biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies, performance improvement and performance solutions services help our customers to deliver better care to more people around the world at a lower cost. In addition, we partner with healthcare leaders, striving to leverage the global policy change necessary to implement a successful shift to sustainable healthcare systems. Our “healthymagination” vision for the future invites the world to join us on our journey as we continuously develop innovations focused on reducing costs, increasing access and improving quality around the world. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE). Worldwide, GE Healthcare employees are committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our website at www.gehealthcare.com.