GE Healthcare Life Sciences - Bridging the Gap Between Upstream and Downstream Bioprocessing

GE Healthcare Life Sciences’ acquisitions of PAA Laboratories and Xcellerex not only signalled the company’s intent in cell culture, it also demonstrated the industry’s general move, and need, for more integrated upstream and downstream processing.

“Customers are now pushing for processes that are more reliable, more robust and more predictable”

“GE Healthcare has a holistic view of the bioprocessing industry, because at the end of the day you can’t really separate unit operations, you need to take a look at the whole picture to develop a successful process,” said Eva Lindskog, GE’s Upstream Marketing Segment Leader, in a recent conversation with BioProcess International Europe.  

From Quantity to Quality

10 years ago, cell culture was all about increasing yields and driving production but customers are now pushing for processes that are more reliable, more robust and more predictable, says GE Healthcare. “Time to market is key, the industry cannot afford to lose batches because time is money. It all comes down to quality and ensuring batch-to-batch consistency”

GE Healthcare is not the only company to supply both cell culture media and single-use systems but they do have heritage in bioprocessing and, according to Dr Lindskog, this will be key in penetrating the cell culture market.

“Customers are increasingly reliant on vendors, and those vendors with a good, mature system which deliver reliable product will ultimately succeed,” Dr Lindskog said, pointing to the company’s unrivalled history and success in Protein A and downstream processing.

“With a strong portfolio of cell culture media, reagents and single-use bioreactors, we can link upstream to downstream, both when it comes to existing synergies and also when developing new products. Another key strength is the ability to readily scale up using our technologies, which have been successfully used in real world settings. As a result, customers are able to predict, early in development, what is likely to happen at the manufacturing scale.”

“We knew that the ActiCHO product was strong but we were honestly surprised at how good it was”

“So far the results have been fantastic…”

GE Healthcare’s presentation at next month’s BPI Europe conference is an opportunity to see the company’s new found capabilities in action. According to Dr Lindskog, the results are very exciting.

“We knew that the ActiCHO product was strong but we were honestly surprised at how good it was, and how we were able to improve the titres not just once but several times over. BPI delegates will see how they can increase titres and in a very short time.”

BPI Europe is the perfect mix of upstream and downstream processing

Commenting on why GE chose to highlight the work at next month’s BioProcess International Europe conference in Düsseldorf, Dr Lindskog said: “It’s one of the major bioprocessing events in Europe. It has a good track record of attracting leaders in upstream and downstream processing and is therefore the perfect event for us. In addition, we will keep a close eye on the flexible manufacturing and tech transfer sessions.”

GE Healthcare’s presentation High titre extended viability CHO fed-batch process using a novel culture media approach, will take place on Day 2 at 11.00am. For further speaker interviews and information on the meeting, including who a list of current attendees, please visit www.bpi-eu.com