Rentschler invests €24m in stainless steel bioreactor manufacturing

Published: 27-Jun-2014

Twin system should be operational in early 2017 and will more than double production capacities for cell culture-derived proteins


Rentschler Biotechnologie, a leading German biopharma contract manufacturing organisation (CMO), is investing €24m to build a Twin system with two 3,000L stainless steel bioreactors at the company’s site in Laupheim, Germany. It should be operational in early 2017 and will more than double production capacities for cell culture-derived proteins.

The Twin system is designed for running two main bioreactors in parallel with one shared downstream processing unit thus providing higher throughput while reducing incremental labour costs involved. It integrates well into the existing 3,000L GMP line and will allow Rentschler to run cell culture processes in fed-batch mode with a very high output in a single suite.

'The expansion will strengthen our global competitiveness and increase our market awareness of being a CMO partner of first choice all the way down from early clinical trials up to approval and market supply with a wide range of manufacturing technologies to offer,' said Frank Ternes, Chief Business Officer at Rentschler.

In the last few years, Rentschler has been heavily investing in single-use technology and recently announced that it will add a new 2,000L single-use bioreactor. Nevertheless, manufacturing in stainless steel is far from being outdated.

Rentschler is experiencing a high demand for stainless steel bioreactor capacity, mainly for market supply, but also for late clinical phases. The criteria for bioreactor selection includes the characteristics of the product to be manufactured, the approval phase, the expected volume requirements, the required flexibility, and competitive pricing due to optimal technological fit.

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