Market Growth for Biopharmaceutical Media, Sera, and Reagents

Bioprocessing materials such as cell-culture media, sera, and reagents are used in the development of different drug products such as recombinant proteins, immunotherapies, and regenerative medicine. Biopharmaceutical research materials include DNA/RNA isolation reagents, chemicals, buffers, stains, and washing solutions.

Media provide nutrients essential for cell growth in culture. Advancements in culture media (both serum-based and serum-free) have enabled researchers to culture different types of cells and microorganisms, including mammalian and bacterial host cells for protein expression (e.g., Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells and Escherichia coli). That work has helped improve understanding of cell biology. Cell culture requires the preparation of solids, semisolids, or liquids for the growth, storage, maintenance, and transport of microorganisms and other cell types and cell lines. Chemically defined basal media also are used to support optimal cell growth.

Sera such as fetal bovine serum (FBS) have high content of growth-promoting factors. Thus, sera are used as media supplements in some cell-culture processes. Cell-culture reagents (e.g., antibiotics and amino acid supplements) are compounds or mixtures that also are added to accelerate chemical reactions.

Market Report
According to Allied Market Research, the global biotechnology media, sera, and reagents market is anticipated to reach US$32.97 billion with a considerable compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2018 to 2025. North America holds the highest market share, owing to a significant rise in government funding for the development of biopharmaceuticals in high-income countries. The Asia–Pacific region is expected to have the fastest growth rate, which can be attributed to factors such as a high demand for media, sera, and reagents; a surge in R&D activities; and a rise in advancements related to cell-culture media in emerging economies in India, China, and other countries.

Developers of cell-culture ingredients also are increasing their manufacturing capacities. For example, Cytiva Life Sciences has expanded its production of powdered cell-culture media by tenfold. The continuing rise in demand for powered cell-culture media, especially in Europe, has influenced different enterprises to invest in skilled personnel to help reduce clinical errors, which also has contributed to market growth for those materials.

COVID-19 Impact Analysis
The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on the global biotechnology media, sera, and reagents market. In early 2020, implementation of public and corporate lockdowns forced production hubs to shut down their operations. As a result, demand for media, sera, and reagents from biopharmaceutical suppliers declined. The medical sector mainly focused on the treatment of COVID-19 patients, so the emergence of innovative advancements of technological systems in biotechnology decreased globally. Severe disruptions in the supply chain, limited face-to-face communications, the unavailability of skilled personnel, and other factors hampered market growth even more. However, the global biopharmaceutical media, sera, and reagents market already has started to recover, and most market watchers expect it to grow back soon.

Additional development of healthcare technologies, especially diagnostics, is enabling researchers to improve disease detection. Advancements in miniaturized technologies and numerous biopharmaceutical media and reagents also have increased researchers’ understanding of microorganisms. For example, contract research company Proteo Genix has developed its XTEN CHO transient expression system, which can provide up to 10× greater yields (compared with traditional solutions) with minimal hands-on time. Such developments are contributing to the growth of the global media, sera, and reagents market.

To continue to improve their understanding of their processes, biomanufacturers are implementing automated processes and process analytical technologies. Such systems are generating large amounts of data related to critical process parameters and product quality attributes. Such “big data” analyses have created opportunities for bioprocessing improvements. Consequently, the global biotechnology media, sera, and reagents market is likely to garner huge growth prospects in the near future, thereby helping to pave the way for improvements in public health and quality of life for all people.

Sanyukta Katkar is a digital marketing engineer at Allied Analytics; [email protected].