Is Innovation In Chromatography Losing Steam?

For several years, BioPlan Associates has measured the industry’s attitudes toward new product development, identifying trends in the areas most sought-after by end users and paid the most attention to by vendors.

Preliminary data from our 10th Annual Report and Survey of Biopharmaceutical Manufacturers, to be released in April, shows that many new product development areas of interest (i.e. where end users want suppliers to focus development efforts for new technologies) have gone unchanged over the past few years. However, one area sticks out in the results: chromatography products for downstream processing. Last year, of the 21 new product development areas we identified, chromatography products ranked third in interest by end users (32.2%). The previous year, they ranked fifth on the list (29.7%), while in 2010 they were second (36.7%).

This year, though, among respondents who have currently completed the survey, chromatography products rank as the ninth most-critical area of interest for new product development, cited by 23.7% of respondents (Figure 1). This may be an indication that the pains and bottlenecks involved in current downstream bioprocessing (DSP) continue to moderate. Biopharmaceutical manufacturers are continuing to streamline their DSP operations. And while the need for better solutions continues, the pain appears to be less acute.