International Alliance for Biological Standardization

The International Alliance for Biological Standardization (IABS) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the scientific and medical advancement of biologicals in human and animal health by facilitating communication at an international level among academia, regulatory authorities and industry.  Our members work in the field of biologicals as professionals in universities, foundations, corporations, and international organizations around the world.   Recently, IABS launched two affiliate organizations, its European affiliate, IABS-EU, its North American affiliate IABS-NA.

The  vision of IABS is to ensure health solutions for everyone everywhere.   The missions of the Alliance related to the scientific and medical advancement of biologicals*, include :

– To host conferences and workshops, facilitate communication, and develop consensus on key contemporary issues related to biologicals among those who discover, develop, produce and regulate biological products for human and animal health;

– To foster evidence-based Science as the standard for improving and ensuring the quality and the safety of biological products and

– To share scientific advancements and innovative regulatory solutions through our journal Biologicals.

For more than 65 years, IABS has had a major impact on scientific and regulatory processes worldwide. These contributions have occurred primarily through collaborative scientific meetings and publications in the journal Biologicals.  IABS’ unique role and strength reside in its ability to bring together interested parties for scientific discussions of important unresolved or emerging issues, to assist in developing a consensus and an action plan to achieve regulatory progress. This strategy has led to significant gains in both the human and veterinary fields, and it differentiates IABS conferences from most scientific meetings that focus simply on the exchange of information. IABS is unique as a nonprofit neutral organization dedicated solely to addressing key issues in regulatory science that underpin approvals for vaccines and biopharmaceuticals worldwide.  Together, with our conference partners and collaborators (private industry, academia, regulatory officials) we have held a variety of conferences on a broad spectrum of topics concerning the biological and biopharmaceutical arena, as well as the veterinary and human health fields.

Our Journal Biologicals, along with hosted conferences and workshops continue to be our core activities.  The reputation of the Journal remains steady and our conferences have been successful in terms of attendance, quality of presentations, and economics. Most recently, we have added a series of webinars and virtual meetings to our portfolio.   A more detailed history and a list of recent conferences is available on the IABS Website.

Increased outreach to various organizations was added as an strategic priority in 2016.  Since then, we have been successful in continuing and initiating new relationships with a wide variety of collaborating organizations. IABS has continued to increase its recognition globally and regionally, and has led the way on the shift from face-to-face to “’virtual” meetings during the COVID-19 Pandemic.   Our outreach and collaboration with other organizations has resulted in our working on biologics-related issues across the world, with a special emphasis on Low and Middle-Income Countries.

In late 2019, IABS embarked on a fundraising effort in order to compensate loss of revenues coming from conferences and publication activities.  In 2019 we achieved our goal of hiring an Executive Director who has helped us redesign and meet new organizational goals and objectives. The organizations financial condition changed with the hiring of additional staff in Lyon and the impact of the pandemic on our 2020 meetings; most of which have been postponed to mid- to late-2021.   The fundraising effort is meant to address IABS needs to maintain and grow its capability, aligned with planned Scientific Projects with a target goal of 2 million USD.   Recently, we have established a website that allows donations to the Alliance.  IABS is a Section 501(c) (3) charitable organization, EIN 33-0840743. All donations are deemed tax-deductible absent any limitations on deductibility applicable to a particular taxpayer. A “Support IABS” section of the our website has been established to provide additional background and incentives. The platform to donate to IABS is also accessible here :