The need to streamline operating costs in biopharmaceutical processing applications has encouraged several companies to shift
gears to the open road of innovation. At the same time, the uncertain economic climate has rendered the demand curve of the
aforementioned more inelastic. GE Healthcare Life Sciences has been promoting its ReadyToProcess platform via a truck tour
that's inclusive of a 1000-ft2 mobile suite containing the company's single-use bioreactors, filters, tubing and connectors, chromatography systems, and
columns—all preconditioned, ready to plug in, and use.
The platform, available globally, incorporates both upstream and downstream steps, including chromatography systems that use
fully disposable single-use flow paths, prepacked and prequalified chromatography columns, single-use bioreactors, and tangential
flow filtration products for ultrafiltration–difiltration and cell harvest applications. The support pieces that make everything
work are also part of the platform, such as sterile filter assemblies, aseptic tube welders, and sealers as well as disposable,
genderless, aseptic connectors. BioPharm International spoke with Matthew Stortz, senior manager, marketing operations, and Lorraine F. Attridge, business leader, ReadyToProcess,
of GE Healthcare Life Sciences to gain an inside look on how the platform serves to meet the need of making bioprocessing
applications more efficient.
BioPharm: When was the ReadyToProcess platform issued and what has been the progression of its development?
Stortz: The platform has been growing steadily since
its official launch on Oct. 1, 2007. GE Healthcare
acquired WAVE Biotech on Apr. 16, 2007, and used
its product portfolio of single-use bioreactors, mixers,
and aseptic tube fusers and sealers, as well as
consumable bags, in addition to internally developed
filtration products (e.g., TFF, normal flow filtration [NFF]) as the basis for the ReadyToProcess platform. In December 2008,
the ÄKTA ready disposable flowpath chromatography system was launched and can be used with the ReadyToProcess prepacked/presanitized
chromatography columns or other conventional chromatography columns. Additional products, including ReadyMate, our Disposable
Aseptic Connector, ReadyCircuit (bag and tubing assemblies facilitating interconnection of unit operations as well as filtration
applications) and accessories such as ReadyKart have filled out the platform.
