Peter Levison
Pall Biotech Executive Director Business Development
Continuous processing is still in early adoption phases across the drug manufacturing industry, but there is already a great deal of progress for such early phases. Regulatory bodies, such as the US FDA, have been supportive, and even encouraging of, the advancement of continuous processes to enable further innovation in the drug treatments and therapies being developed for end users. In fact, small molecule drug manufacturers, such as Janssen (Prezista) have already successfully implemented commercial-scale continuous production processes.
As demand grows for safer, higher-quality and more efficacious drugs that are also more affordable, industry has been forced to find new ways to improve the production process. Even just ten to fifteen years ago, manufacturers were hesitant to accept/apply single-use technologies. But market demand helped make single-use technologies an innovation enabler, and while they are not yet fully standardized, adoption is increasing. We expect a similar trajectory for continuous processes across the drug manufacturing market but predict that industry will adopt it more quickly.