Upstream & Downstream Processing

Cytiva adds Culture bioreactors to tackle scaling bottlenecks

The combination of Culture Bio’s single-use 250 mL bioreactor to Cytiva’s web-based Bioreactor Scaler Tool aims to de-risk scaling activities for biomanufacturers. Under terms of the collaboration, the Cytiva web-based Bioreactor Scaler Tool now includes Culture Bio’s 250 mL bioreactor vessel. “Combining our technologies makes it easier and more predictable for customers to scale processes between Culture’s high-throughput, development-scale platform into Cytiva’s commercial-scale bioreactor platform,” the companies told BioProcess Insider. “Both systems leverage web- and cloud-based technologies. Process scientists can…

Voice of resin: Purolite talks US agarose expansion at BIO

Purolite says support from parent firm Ecolab helped drive plans for a facility in Pennsylvania aimed at bringing biologics resin direct to the US market. Bioprocess services and consumables firm Purolite will construct a plant in Landenberg, Pennsylvania, offering resin production facilities, cleanrooms, laboratories, and new office space, it was revealed this week. Speaking to BioProcess Insider at BIO in Boston, Hayley Crowe, SVP and general manager at Purolite, said the company’s first US facility was driven by Ecolab, which…

3M pumps $146m into European biofiltration network

Details are sparse, but the investment will include facility and equipment improvements and the addition of 60 full-time positions at 3M manufacturing facilities in Europe. Industrial conglomerate 3M offers, among its many products, depth filters for cell culture clarification used in biomanufacturing. To support what it terms as “a fast-growing area of health care which is bringing breakthrough therapies to patients,” the firm is expanding its European network through a $146 million investment. The cash injection will speed up development…

Agilent: Established pharma compensating for ‘shut down’ small biotech

Expected revenue growth from emerging biotech has gone from double-digits to a decline says Agilent Technologies, but mid-to-large pharma remains robust. Instrument and consumable vendor Agilent pulled in $1.72 billion, up 9.5% year-on-year, for its fiscal year 2023 Q2 results. Specifically, revenue for pharma and biopharma grew 11% in Q2 and when Agilent’s Nucleic Acid Solutions Division (NASD) was included it grew 16%. What made these figure more impressive is the “increasingly challenging market environment,” management explained on the call,…

In on the ACT: Eppendorf adds sustainability accreditation

Eppendorf has launched the first centrifuge on the market to be deemed sustainable under the My Green Lab ACT label. We ask the firm what this means, and how it plays into wider sustainability goals. The concept of sustainability has moved beyond a tick-box exercise within the bioprocess industry. Last year, vendors took note as pharma giant GSK launched a sustainability program calling on its network of over 160 suppliers to take action on sustainability commitments and make improvements on emissions, energy, heat,…

Expert: Synthetic promoters for transcription the ‘foundation of modern biotech’

Synthetic biology could be used to develop a new paradigm in controlling cellular function and specificity, according to a bioprocess engineer at BPI Europe.   Speaking at the event in Amsterdam, The Netherlands this week, David James, professor of bioprocess engineering at the University of Sheffield, told delegates the manufacturability of biotherapeutics can be enhanced by synthetic biology through the design of specific genetic systems. Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells are a workhorse in biomanufacturing, used to produce large quantities of…

‘Better together’ – Danaher completes Cytiva Pall merger

Bringing the Pall portfolio under the Cytiva brand will bring customers simpler and greater access to bioprocess technologies and services, claims Danaher. Danaher Corporation jumped into the pure-play bioprocess space in 2015 buying the life sciences business of Pall Corporation for $13.8 billion. Five years later, the firm doubled down on the sector paying $21 billion for Cytiva (then known as GE Healthcare Life Sciences). While the two have been operating as separate brands, going forward both will fall under…

Sartorius Q1: CGT confidence among declining COVID sales

With ‘demand normalization’ hitting the topline, Sartorius lays out ambitions in the cell and gene therapy materials sector further propelled through the planned acquisition of Polyplus. Life sciences service firm Sartorius presented sales of €695 million ($761 million) in its Bioprocess Solutions business for the first quarter 2023, a 14.7% drop on the same period last year. Orders, meanwhile, fell 35% to €575.7 million compared to Q1 2022. Management explained the decline as a continuation of demand normalization following the…

CHO business: Fujifilm Irvine bulks out media offering

Fujifilm Irvine Scientific has expanded its growth media business with products aimed at upping productivity of Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells in both perfusion and fed-batch bioprocesses. The latest expansion in Fujifilm Irvine Scientific’s cell culture media sees the firm add BalanCD CHO Perfusion and BalanCD CHO DG44, designed to maximize growth, viability, and productivity of Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cell lines. “All media in the BalanCD CHO portfolio are chemically defined and optimized with the nutrients and components needed…

Meissner building $250m filtration plant in Georgia

The Athens, Georgia facility will create 1,700 jobs and more than double Meissner’s US filtration and single-use product manufacturing footprint, the firm says. Meissner Corporation is investing nearly $250 million into the new facility in Winterville, Athens-Clarke County, the company announced this week. Once complete, the facility will boast cleanroom facilities, laboratories, research and development, and office spaces, and will substantially grow the firm’s current US footprint for single-use systems, filtration products, and aseptic filling systems used in the biomanufacturing…