MC: What new products or innovations did your company showcase at BIO 2024?
FS: During BIO 2024, Purolite announced its novel contribution to affinity chromatography. Our novel protein A resin — DurA Cycle A50 — aims to address key challenges facing the biopharmaceutical industry and represents the culmination of extensive research and
development, as well as collaborations with experts in the field.
Alongside our new product launch, Ecolab shared key updates surrounding the company’s new life science sector and its product
portfolio, which includes various initiatives in areas such as active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and excipients, milling media and downstream purification.
MC: What made you attend BIO 2024?
FS: BIO is a regular fixture on Purolite’s events calendar, presenting an excellent opportunity to introduce our offering to a broader audience. It allows us to showcase our product and service lineup to a global audience of industry leaders, innovators and stakeholders.
In an industry wherein collaboration is key, BIO facilitates crucial networking opportunities, allowing us to nurture both new and pre-existing relationships with potential partners and customers throughout the value chain. Through in-person interactions, attendees get a real feel for who we are, the innovative solutions we provide and the culture of our business.
We also love BIO because it allows us to build brand awareness, boosting the industry’s engagement with our products and services whilst showcasing our company ethos to all who attend. Attending the educational sessions was a factor too as it allows us to stay informed about
the latest industry developments.
MC: What are the current challenges in the pharmaceutical market and how is Purolite addressing them?
FS: The main challenges facing the pharmaceutical industry relate to the sustainability of the drug production process. Being environmentally conscious during manufacturing has become a critical consideration in recent years. As such, Purolite focuses on how decisions made during downstream processing can help to mitigate environmental impacts whilst conserving resources, ensuring economic viability and meeting regulatory requirements.
To address these challenges, we are implementing novel practices and technologies that minimise energy consumption and waste production, thereby enhancing the sustainability of our manufacturing protocols. 
Felix Solamo, Purolite’s Senior Global Director and Field Applications Scientist — Purification
MC: Do you have any plans for business expansion or market growth in the pipeline?
FS: In response to customer and market needs, Ecolab has invested in additional manufacturing capacity to increase global resin supply, whilst also providing enhanced supply security. Through a strong and continuous investment from the company, we are building our dual-continent supply capabilities — meaning that as our customers’ production scales and grows, we can provide the necessary volumes from strategically located manufacturing locations.
By using this tactic, we can boost our supply chain reliability as well as enabling us to strategically locate our manufacturing operations close to key customers. This investment will allow the company to continue to meet rising market demands.
MC: What sets your company apart from your competitors?
FS: Purolite utilises a unique, patented approach to its resin manufacturing, which we call “jetting technology.” For decades, the chromatography industry has relied on traditional batch emulsified manufacturing processes. This technique includes significantly more steps to achieve purities that match our jetting process. This means that our strategy can reduce lead times for customers as
well as facilitating lot-to-lot consistency and improving environmental credentials by reducing harmful solvent usage.
We have also partnered with Realign to combine our base bead technology with its ligand development expertise. Collaborative efforts with partners such as Replign have led to the development of ligand — including our novel Praesto Jetted HipH resin, which shows remarkable
promise in terms of purifying unstable molecules, enhancing recovery rates and reducing product loss.
