The BioProcess International Conference & Exhibition (BPI), held September 4­–7 and part of Biotech Week in Boston, Massachusetts, hosted approximately 4,500 attendees, up 50% from last year, as well as 200 exhibitors eager to introduce their products to the attendees working in the production of biotherapeutics. These BPI conferences are held twice a year, on the West Coast in the spring and on the East Coast in the fall. These bioprocess-specific conferences provide an opportunity for attendees to learn new technologies, network and talk to vendors about emerging technologies used in their biomanufacturing environments. This year, exhibitors focused their efforts on three ongoing trends affecting the industry: the emergence of continuous processing, the move towards single-use technologies and the focus on improved process productivity.

Several significant obstacles still exist to implement commercial continuous processing, including the conservative nature of the pharmaceutical industry, and the development of other enabling devices that allow for real-time monitoring and control of the process. Pall has been leading the industry in this regard, and its presence at BPI this year was no different. At the show, Pall introduced the Cadence BioSMB platform, which employs a unique single-use eight column system architecture, enabling a highly flexible flow configuration through the use of a novel single-use valve cassette. There are two flow-range variants available targeted to perfusion for bioreactor-based processes, the Cadence BioSMB Process 80 system, and for batch operations, the Cadence BioSMB Process 350 system.

On these new systems, Pall claims a less than 30 minute manifold installation time and easier infrastructure management using the smaller pre-packed columns. Perhaps one of the most overlooked time saving inventions on the system is the use of a compact disposable valve cassette specially designed and patented as a single-use component. This valve system eliminates the need for a difficult cleaning validation process often seen on competitive systems.

Other vendors demonstrated technologies at BPI supporting the continuous process movement, including at-line or in-line sensors used to monitor the process. Mettler-Toledo, for example, demonstrated an in-line liquid phase dCO² sensor, the InPro 5000i, capable of real-time measurements critical for enabling continuous upstream processing. The company also showed the at-line bioburden detector, 7000 RMS, used to control for potential contamination of process waters.

At the show, Thermo Fisher Scientific spoke with customers about the benefit of their February acquisition of Finesse Solutions (see IBO 2/15/17), and the ability of the system to control bioreactor and mixer systems, collect data and optimize processes. The acquisition allows Thermo Fisher to provide an integrated Smart Factory solution to customers—critical to enabling continuous processing.

Thermo Fisher also continued to introduce customers to their improved scale-up capability in upstream processing, allowing a 5:1 scale up of processes (rather than the traditional 2:1), allowing customers to scale up to a 1,000 L vessel in only three steps. The improved development path allows customers to save on capital expenditures and improves operating efficiency.

Other notable products or processes introduced at the show to improve process productivity included GE Healthcare’s MabSelect PrismaA Protein A column, which is capable of a 40% improvement in mAb purification capacity; MilliporeSigma’s Eshmuno P anti-A and anti-B affinity resins used in the purification of Immunoglobulin products; and an update to Sartorius Stedim Biotech’s BIOSTAT STR bioreactor product line, to allow for more rapid direct linear scale-up of fermentation processes. Beckman Coulter demonstrated an end-to-end solution for cell line development leveraging their automation in conjunction with Molecular Devices’ and Pall’s detection technologies.