The HarvestClear Filtration System – which as premiered at Interpehex in April - is designed to clarify small 1-20 liter bioreactor outputs and features an automated pumping system with a sterile, ready to use filtration manifold that includes in-line pressure sensors.
The innovative thing about the system is the technologies it combines according to product manager Gregg Larson who told BioPharma-Reporter.com that while “other companies that provide single-use filtration products include Pall, EMD Millipore, Sartorius, 3M, and GE.... Parker is leveraging the synergies from the acquisitions of domnick hunter, SciLog and Mitos to provide a fully vertically integrated platform within the same quality system.”
Larson added that: “The HarvestClear System was designed for companies growing CHO [Chinese hamster ovary] and other cells to produce antibody drugs, which is where we expect to see the most interest.
“The end user no longer has to be the integrator, Parker is able to perform that action for them. HarvestClear is just the first of many good products to come utilizing the best practices and strengths of what used to be separate companies, but now fall under the Parker umbrella.
Tech benefits
The firm – which bought Domnick Hunter in 2005, Mitos two years later and completed the purchase of SciLog in August last year – claims the combined system can increase filtration yield by up to 30% compared with others on the market.
This yield boost is thanks in large part to SciLog’s patented rate-pressure (R/P) stat method, which monitors three variables - initial flow rate, maximum inlet pressure and minimum flow rate.
This information enables the system’s FilterTec controller to operate at constant rate until maximum pressure is reached, at which point it dynamically adjusts the flow rate as the membrane begins to foul, allowing additional product to pass through the filter.
Markets
Single-use is a major talking point for the biopharmaceutical sector, which manufacturers and technology developers recognising the approach’s potential flexibility and space saving benefits.
But, while there is this interest, European manufacturers seem to be leading the charge, at least judging by Sartorius’ recent financials and what ATMI told BioPharma-Reporter earlier this year.
We put this this idea to Larson who said that regulations may be part of the reason for the trend, suggesting that: “There have been a lot of technologies that were first adopted in Europe and then accepted by the US FDA later.
He added however that: “We see much interest in our single-use technologies for biopharmaceutical manufacturing on both sides of the Atlantic and in Asia.”