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Biomanufacturing, from bust to boom...to bubble?

Nature Biotechnology volume 22, pages 1365–1372 (2004)Cite this article

Has a worldwide shortage in biomanufacturing capacity turned to a glut in just 4 years? A building boom and advances in technology threaten to derail adoption of potentially cheaper transgenic manufacturing platforms.

Just 4 years ago, it was common wisdom that the biopharmaceutical industry was facing a worldwide shortage of manufacturing capacity. The poster child for the crisis was Enbrel (etanercept), a recombinant, soluble receptor for tumor necrosis factor developed by Immunex (Seattle, WA, USA, subsequently acquired by Amgen, Thousand Oaks, CA), and first approved to treat rheumatoid arthritis in November 1998. After 2 years on the US market, the drug had proven so popular that Immunex, and then-partner American Home Products, unable to manufacture enough product to meet demand, instituted a waiting list for prospective patients. The shortfalls continued until December 2002, by which time Amgen had acquired Immunex and made enough progress with a new, purpose-built manufacturing facility in West Greenwich, Rhode Island, to start churning out more Enbrel for new patients.

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Figure 1: Will market demand outpace capacity? Projections show a potential shortfall by 2008 for mammalian cell culture (top) and for microbial cell culture (bottom).
Figure 2: Duckweed production line.

References

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  1. freelance writer based, Portland, Oregon, USA

    Karl A Thiel

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  1. Karl A Thiel
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Thiel, K. Biomanufacturing, from bust to boom...to bubble?. Nat Biotechnol 22, 1365–1372 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt1104-1365

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt1104-1365

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