Next week, industry will flock to Philadelphia to attend the BIO International Convention. While Biopharma-Reporter.com will be talking to some of the major players in bioprocessing showcasing their latest platforms, Sartorius - one of the largest suppliers of single-use technologies – will be notable by its absence.
The firm is using demonstration laboratories, the latest being a 40,000 sq ft site in Bohemia, New York which opened this week, to showcase its product range to customers. This is the third “Sartorius Application Center,” company spokesman Dominic Grone said, following centres in China and Germany.
“The New York Sartorius Application Center gives access to multiple systems from Upstream Processing to Downstream Processing with a focus on single-use,” he told Biopharma-Reporter.com. “The Demonstration Laboratories present equipment according to application and to show how individual systems work together for a complete process solution.”
At a recent tradeshow, GE Healthcare used Xbox Kinect technology to offer potential clients the opportunity to view and test its product range ‘virtually,’ and so we asked Grone if investing in demonstration facilities is still the best way to showcase equipment in an industry that still thrives on tradeshows.
“These demonstration centres are needed more than ever,” he explained. “They are very helpful and useful for us and our customers to demonstrate and practice the handling of single use technology - considering official requirements and regulations - and to show innovations and benefits of this technology. Trade shows do not replace them.”
He added: "We want to focus even more on direct marketing, particularly on scientific conferences, own events and in house exhibitions."
The products available to view and test at the NY centre include Sartorius’ Biostat and Palletanks fermenters, as well as - following the recent acquisitions - TAP Biosystems and AllPure product range.