Pall follows Thermo Fisher, Sartorius trend for single-use tech
The purchase, which includes Integrity brand bioreactors, added to Pall’s fresh acquisitions of single-use technologies, said CEO Larry Kingsley.
“Combined with the recent acquisitions of single-use innovators Medistad Holding B.V. and SoloHill Engineering, Inc. and our already solid portfolio of biopharmaceutical solutions, the addition of the ATMI LifeSciences assets positions us well to capitalize on opportunities in the rapidly growing single-use market segment,” he said.
Kingsley told a conference in January the ATMI acquisition came at a time when bioprocessing is moving “from conventional manufacturing methodologies to single-use disposable technologies.
“With ATMI we pick up bioreactors, mixers, biocontainers, other connector technologies, a lot of the really important ingredients to the manufacturer, and slightly upstream elements to what we had already been participating in in the field of single-use.”
The ATMI LifeSciences purchase did not rule out other acquisitions by Pall, added the CEO.
ATMI’s sale to Pall is the latest in a list of indications that pharma firms are keen to own their own single-use technology.
Thermo Fisher made sure to retain its single-use biotechnologies when it divested its HyClone business in November 2013 to GE Healthcare.
In the same month, Sartorius acquired TAP Systems, a manufacturer of biopharma systems, including microscale bioreactors.
Industry consensus is that single-use biomanufacturing systems increase operational flexibility, reduce process turn-around time, and save time on site-to-site transfer and product changeover.
A biotechnology expert at Thermo Fisher told our reporter in 2012 single-use mixers and bioreactors can be installed within weeks, and turnaround between production batches may take only hours.
