in-Pharmatechnologist.com was at ATMI’s facility in Hoegaarden, Belgium to meet Global Product Manager, Eric Isberg and discuss market demand and future innovations in bioreactors and mixing systems.
“If anything, Europe is ahead of the US in terms of innovation and single-use” he said, adding that “maybe if Asia takes on some of this innovation it will push [America] further to become innovative.”
The point was illustrated with ATMI’s Integrity Padreactor, a single-use bioreactor for growing cell cultures, which is cubed rather than cylindrical.
According to Isberg, this ‘square’ reactor can offer better mixing results than traditional ‘round’ tanks yet has not readily been taken up by the US market due to preconceptions based on multi-use stainless-steel systems.
“The square tank was very difficult to clean in the stainless versions,” he said. “Most engineers immediately resist [the square system] because of the cleanability, but of course with single-use you don’t have cleanability issues.”
Global demand for single-use bioreactors is also increasing according to ATMI global sales director Roel Gordijn who told us that although traditional markets still dominate “economies like India, China, Brazil are really picking up now.”
There was some optimism throughout the facility tour and a real belief that single-use bioprocessing solutions would become the standard for the industry. This echoes previous comments that ATMI has said to this publication as ATMI continue to widen its capabilities and offer new innovations to fully integrate the unconventional systems in the biotech world.