BBI Solutions has invested in its facilities and resources to increase the capacity of cell culture transferrin production by up to 40% (Pharma Integrates, 2017).

Stephane Argivier, BBI’s Director of Product Management, said “Demand for our cell culture grade transferrin was growing at such a rate that we had reached our full capacity. In response to market demand, we saw the opportunity to increase our capacity to meet the needs of our customers and provide room for growth.”

Human transferrin is a natural and often essential component to promote cell growth in many cell culture applications and is frequently used in serum-free media, where it acts as an iron transporter.

BBI have been manufacturing human holo, apo and sidero grades of transferrin for more than ten years. In this time, growth in the cell culture market has been noticeable and it is only set to continue, as forecasts show it to be worth $18.63bn by 2020 (CAGR 10.5%).

Factors triggering growth include increasing incidence of chronic diseases, increasing regulatory approvals for cell culture based vaccines, funding for cell-based research and technological advancements in cell culture products.

The increase in BBI’s production capacity has seen substantial improvements to the manufacturing facilities at their site in Sittingbourne, in which it has invested £150,000 in new machinery and increased resource capabilities.

BBI’s human transferrin is manufactured under the ISO 13485 quality management system. BBI provide high specification material at large scale and with excellent batch to batch consistency. The human transferrin is pasteurised and filtered at 0.2 µm to guarantee low mycoplasma and low bioburden. BBI can also control many other parameters, such as moisture and iron levels, to meet customer’s specifications and requirements.