Increasing inclination
toward the use of high-grade polymer
materials in the construction of single-use bioprocessing materials and
development of advanced materials that can provide integral strength to the
single-use bioprocessing products have boosted the growth of the single-use
bioprocessing materials market. According to a research firm, Allied Market
Research, in 2016, the single-use
bioprocessing materials market was valued at $2.8 billion and is
expected to register the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.7% during
period 2017–2023.
Immense demand
for single-use bioprocessing materials has
led to numerous mergers & acquisitions and partnerships. In fact,
partnerships are regarded as the most efficient way to expand business. Recently,
Emergent BioSolutions, the U.S.-based multinational specialty biopharmaceutical
company, extended its partnership with vendor
ABEC to add a dual plant in Maryland, U.S. Similarly, Chinese company, Wego Pharmaceuticals,
decided to collaborate with GE Healthcare to manufacture single-use
consumables. Such developments have become necessary to cater to the demand-supply
equation in the market.
Collaborations to boost the efficiency
A healthcare technology
supplier in China, Wego Pharmaceuticals, recently announced its collaboration
with GE healthcare, to manufacture single-use consumables for bioprocessing. In
addition, the first product is expected to hit the Chinese market by the end of
November 2018.
Single-use bioprocessing
materials coupled with its efficiency and speed are expected to meet with
China’s broader healthcare goals. Olivier Loeillot, General Manager of
bioprocess at GE Healthcare Life Sciences, stated,
“This partnership signifies how China continues to maintain its leading
position in the adoption of novel single-use biomanufacturing solutions. GE and
Wego Pharmaceuticals have signed a long-term partnership agreement to expand
its supply outside of China as the
Asia-Pacific market offers lucrative opportunities.”
Similarly, Emergent
BioSolutions also extended its tie-up
with ABEC to make an addition of a dual purpose to Emergent’s facility at Baltimore,
Maryland. Moreover, to seal the deal, ABEC has shipped a custom-made CSR
(Custom Single Run) single-use system, which would be used for mammalian cell
culture and large-scale microbial fermentation. A year ago, Emergent installed
a 4,000 L single-use bioreactor from ABEC, the largest bioreactor available in
the market.
Cooper-Curcio, ABEC’s
spokesperson, stated,
“ABEC’s custom single run systems improve our client’s flexibility,
productivity, and economies of scale and the market leaders are realizing these
benefits.”
Future of single-use bioprocessing
Technological
advancements and dire need for upgraded efficiency have tremendous potential to
create novel benefits of single-use bioprocessing. It is expected that the
future in single-use bioprocessing would be filled with big data and machine
learning. The benefits of automation are self-explanatory, but till now, we
have only scratched a surface when it comes dealing with the humongous data
generated by these automated systems. Thus, the applications of big data in
single-use bioprocessing are still in nascent stage.
Apart from
real-time controlling and monitoring, automated solutions improve the ability
to analyze historical operations, processes, and performance data, which can
result in several useful outcomes, including controlling outcomes to optimize
product yield. The next big thing in the single-use bioprocessing materials
market will be the incorporation of
machine learning based on the big data. For instance, GE Healthcare recently
developed a scale-agnostic machine learning infrastructure to deal with yield-efficiencies
in bioprocess production facilities. The company has used advanced artificial
intelligence algorithms to create process-parameter values that are specially
designed to maximize the yield of every
production run.
Pharmaceutical Microbiology Resources
