Filtration is a ‘high value process at a marginal cost,’ says Danaher
Within its life science business, Danaher Corporation announced a 4% sales increase year-on-year to $1.3bn for the first quarter 2017.
This included a mid-single-digit growth contribution from Pall Corporation – the filtration, separation and purification tech firm acquired in September 2015 for $14bn – with single use systems particularly being called out by management.
And though this was not the double-digit spurt the firm saw in multiple quarters last year, CEO Tom Royce remained encouraged by the continued demand from biopharma end-users for Pall’s equipment.
“Both the high growth of large molecule drugs today that are in the market as well as the pipelines being skewed towards large molecule drugs, both speak well to the long-term growth trajectory of biopharma. There is no question, that’s where all the investment is going over time,” he told stakeholders.
“And filtration is used more intensively in large molecule drug production than in small molecule drug production. So, I think when we look at it from a macro perspective, we still feel very positive about how the biopharma, particularly manufacturing rates will be sustained over time, and how that will benefit Pall.”
He also described Pall’s role in biomanufacturing as a filtration expert as both “vital” and “at a relatively low cost” to the end-users compared to the other processes involved.
“The filtration as a component of the overall manufacturing cost is relatively modestly, arguably even marginal, but the value is so high that we think filtration is a very sustainable position across biopharma over the long term.”
Last month Pall showcased a number of its downstream offerings – including the BioSMB continuous chromatography system and the Cadence Acoustic Separator – at the Interphex biomanufacturing trade show in New York. This week the firm will be at Bioprocessing International Europe in Amsterdam, as will Biopharma-Reporter, so stay tuned for coverage.
