An Industrial Service Provider Becomes a Specialist for Modular Engineering

? Mr Eitel, how important is the understanding of the process for an industrial service provider and system builders?

Tobias Eitel: We need to understand the process of our clients - whether it be a cell culture process, a microbial process or purification. Because of this, we have 85 engineers in the company in order to discuss matters on an equal fitting.

? What trends can you see in the pharmaceutical and biotech sector?

Eitel: The issues personalised medicine and small batches have been dominating the discussion for a long time. More and more medicine is being produced using biotechnology - and - thank God - Central Europe is still an in-demand location. A chemical synthesis runs fully automatically, but in a fermentation - microbially as well as in the case of cell cultures - the operators need a high level of training.

? How important is modular plug & play system in this context?

Eitel: We see now that ever more and ever larger units are prefabricated and are not assembled on the construction site. The customer no longer wants to have as many contractors 'on-site' - the time to market is also getting shorter. Therefore, many modules and skids - and if possible, even plug & play. The fact that the plug &play concept has not been completely implemented is usually down to automation, since all of the individual components have to be involved in a common automation concept.

? What is the situation with downstream processes?

Eitel: We want to be able to offer the customer the complete process chain from the inoculum up to freezing. It may be that a lot of the big boys are serving the mass market with their off-the-shelf products - but with individual solutions, we see great potential for our expertise. We have been able to position ourselves well in the field of ultra-filtration, nano- and virus filtration and are going further in the field of purification in a research collaboration with the Vienna University of Technology.

? Do you see the changes in the biopharmaceutical industry as an opportunity or a challenge?

Eitel: It is a challenge - many customers often use disposable solutions because of the flexibility and the lack of cross-contamination. However, we are of the opinion that the single-use concept was not fully thought through to the end: leachables, extractables and the gamma radiation are not researched enough at all. Stainless steel is not going into extinction - there is also need for research here, precisely with regard to wash, CIP and SIP times. Here, stainless steel has further potential - not least in terms of CAPEX.