BPI Theater Interview: Hayley Crowe, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Global Life Sciences, Purolite (Ecolab)

Ecolab is a global company committed to worldwide health and sustainability. Through its subsidiary company Purolite, Ecolab has expanded its outreach further into life sciences, spreading its message of sustainability and seeking to help deliver medicines to patients faster than has traditionally been done in the sector.

To address the latter problem, Crowe discussed the supply-chain difficulties that affected the biopharmaceutical industry during the COVID-19 pandemic. She said that although supply chains have replenished in the past couple years, the pandemic drove companies to rethink their strategies. Ecolab has invested significantly in acquiring dual-source supplies not only for securing raw materials and suppliers, but also for supporting customers. Crowe stressed the importance of having a backup plan to ensure the health of the supply chain.

She said that one of the biggest challenges faced by the industry is the diversity of molecules developed in the space. Customers have expressed concern about having poor yield and purity, so Purolite spent time and invested in research to devise a solution. In the past 18 months, Purolite launched three new monoclonal antibody (mAb)-purification products. The need to purify a diverse set of molecules while reducing users’ CoG drove Purolite to develop its DurA Cycle protein A resin at its facility in Ynysmaerdy, Wales, UK. The company leveraged the expertise of its own resin specialists and then partnered with ligand experts from Repligen to develop the new resin. Crowe said that the partnership spawned a bead–ligand technology that enabled her company to address challenges with difficult molecules quickly.

Crowe emphasized the importance of listening to customer needs and developing a resin with superior longevity. She said that Purolite’s jetting and bead technologies address those needs when combined with Repligen’s ligand, leading to significant savings in CoG for users.

Aside from its facility in Wales, which was recently scaled up to a 100,000-L capacity, Purolite has two locations in Pennsylvania, US. The King of Prussia site has an applications laboratory, and the Landberg location is modeled after the Welsh facility. Its modular construction can be scaled to accommodate customer needs.

“Ecolab is highly invested [in] innovation,” Crowe concluded. “You’ll see more coming from us.”

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