Moving Toward a Continuous Future

Michael Egholm, PhD, Vice President and General Manager of Biopharmaceuticals at Pall Life Sciences

During the March 2016 BPI West conference in Oakland, CA, BPI publisher Brian Caine and I had an opportunity to meet with Michael Egholm, PhD, Vice President and General manager of Biopharmaceuticals at Pall Life Sciences. We are pleased to be able to share his thoughts about Pall’s support of continuous processing — and the company’s current offerings.

Montgomery: Not everyone seems to be defining continuous processing in the same way. What is your general concept of it?

Egholm: At Pall Life Sciences, we see continuous processing (and the pun is intended here) as a continuous evolution of the life sciences industry.

Over the past decade, the transition to single-use technologies has taken a great deal of the spotlight, reaching an inflection point where we now see very rapid growth and adoption. Continuous processing is the next logical extension of that evolution because it aims to link technologies to create a one-piece flow where a molecule has minimal downtime. The Holy Grail in this would be to integrate real-time release testing and go from bioreactor to the clinic in a true one-piece flow.

It is no secret, at least in our minds, that the acceptance of single-use technologies has finally enabled the drive toward continuous processing in this industry.

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