Biopharmaceuticals are protein-based drugs, used to treat multiple conditions – ranging from cancer to diabetes. These drugs have taken the pharmaceutical world by storm, with demand continuing to rise at around 8% p.a. A direct beneficiary of the biopharmaceuticals boom is the global biopharma fermentation industry, which is critical to producing various active substances in biotech-based drugs. Despite the prevalence of mammalian-based cell culture techniques to produce biologics, microbial fermentation has earned a solid position in the biomanufacturing sector. A variety of treatments are being developed that incorporate fermentation, making it one of the fastest-growing markets in the value chain.
We talked to Soumya, healthcare practice manager at Mordor Intelligence, and co-author of ‘Global Biopharmaceutical Fermentation Market Report’ to understand the future direction of this market. She says, “We were projecting the fermentation technology market to register growth rates of nearly 10% p.a. even before COVID-19 had struck the world. The pandemic nearly doubled the growth rate between 2019 and 2022 with the unprecedented research and production efforts on diagnostic kits and vaccines. Barring any black swan event, our growth projections for the next five years are again in the ballpark of 10% p.a., albeit on a larger revenue base.”
Upstream biopharmaceutical fermentation or bioprocessing deals with the use of living cells to obtain desired products, where the process starts from early cell separation and cultivation to cell culture expansion to harvest. This process alone will be a USD10 billion market in 5 years, mainly on account of bioreactor sales.
However, the Mordor Intelligence Report points out that an even bigger opportunity lies within the Downstream processing side of fermentation. Downstream processing includes the recovery and purification of biological products. It is an essential part of the manufacturing of vaccines, antibodies, antibiotics, and hormones. This is currently a USD16-17 billion global opportunity that is growing even faster than the upstream market.
New investments and collaborations in research activities of biologics are directly creating a consistent demand pipeline for fermentation. Several greenfield and brownfield biologics production facilities are expected to be completed over the coming years. Major biotechnology companies and other pharmaceutical companies are partnering with fermentation market players to identify and prioritize promising new biological treatments. According to the Mordor Intelligence Report, Agilent Technologies, Thermo Fischer Scientific Inc., and Sartorius Stedim Biotech are just a few companies from a long list of market players that are actively pursuing new product launches or collaborations.
The largest customer segment of fermentation technology products is conventional biopharmaceutical companies. However, CROs/CDMOs as buyer groups of fermentation technology are growing faster compared to conventional biopharmaceutical companies. They are also increasing their footprint and coverage in the recombinant protein business with hopes of double-digit growth. This fits well for the fermentation business where nearly 45% of the market pie goes to recombinant protein development.
The future of biopharmaceuticals is here, and the biopharmaceutical fermentation market is leading the charge, but the Mordor Intelligence report also has a few words of caution to offer. The high cost of biopharmaceutical fermentation systems is still a big roadblock. The cost of setting up a fermentation facility is significantly high. As a result, biopharmaceutical clients are still paying super-premium rates when they outsource fermentation. The potential of many high-end applications e.g. antimicrobial peptides remains unexploited.
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