Manufacturing: Biotechnology Industry

Manufacturing: Biotechnology Industry

The term biotechnology is a very broad term that can be associated with many industries, such as: Industrial Biotechnology, Medical Biotechnology, Marine Biotechnology, Environmental Biotechnology, Law, Ethics, Philosophy, Food Biotechnology, Biological Warfare, Bioinformatics, Desert Biotechnology. 


What is Biotechnology?
Wikipedia: “any technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms or derivatives thereof, to make or modify products or processes for specific use”
What are Biopharmaceuticals?
Wikipedia: “any pharmaceutical drug product manufactured in, extracted from, or semi-synthesized from biological sources”
What is Bioprocessing?
Pharma IQ: “any process that uses complete living cells or their components to obtain desired products”


Trend: products are becoming more complex (1/2)
Biotech vs Conventional Pharma
Trend: products are becoming more complex (2/2)
The portion of Biotech products is increasing


Manufacturing Processes Overview: Biotech vs Conventional Pharma
1 – Conventional Pharma Manufacturing: chemical synthesis for drug manufacturing
2 – Biotechnology Manufacturing: bioprocessing for growth and harvest of biopharmaceuticals
3 – Extraction of natural drug products from vegetable or animal tissues


Chemical Synthesis Process Overview

  • Diagram shows an example of bulk aspirin manufacturing process.
  • Series of chemical reactions in multipurpose reactors.
  • Process flow from reactor to crystallizer, slurry tank, centrifuge, dump cart and rotary dryer.
  • The products are isolated by extraction, crystallisation and filtration.


Process Workflow for Dosage-Form Products

  • Drug substances are converted into dosage-form products before administration to humans or animals
  • The active drug substances are mixed with excipients and processed to achieve the desired properties for final formulation.
  • Tablets, pills and capsules are amongst the most common dosage forms.


Bioprocessing Overview

  • Biopharmaceutical manufacturing or Bioprocessing is divided into two broad areas:
  • Upstream Bioprocessing
  • Downstream Bioprocessing
  • Microorganisms containing the chemical product are grown up to large scale, the product is then harvested and purified.

Differences between Batch, Fed-Batch, Continuous Cultures Upstream Bioprocessing


Product Recovery Methods – Filtration and Chromatography
Downstream Bioprocessing
Depth Filtration removes cell debris due to size exclusion as well as contaminants and unwanted particles


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