Biotechnologies product commercialization

Some typical commercial biotechnology products are citric acid, semi-synthetic penicillins and cephalosporins, and vitamin B12. World production volumes and bulk prices show a considerable range of values. Prices tend to be inversely proportional to the amount of product sold, that is, the scale of production, and to the concentration at which it can be produced in the bioreactor. The importance of the concentration at which each product is produced in determining the cost of purification and isolation, and thus the... 

The majority of the processes currently used to manufacture biotechnology products employ chromatography columns as the main tool for effective product recovery and purification. The scale-up [39] and validation [40] of this vastly popular unit operation is key for successful implementation of the overall production strategy at large scale and eventual product approval for commercialization. 

Recombinant DNA methodology has come of age. It has spawned a growing industry that seeks to commercialize products derived from this technology. Most notable among these biotechnology products are those for human therapeutic use, and of these there are two categories proteins and nucleic acids. The research, development, and commercialization of therapeutic proteins derived from biotechnology is far more advanced than that of nucleic... 

It is generally recognized that the commercial success of biotechnology products is largely due to the successful development of high-powered analyt-... 

Despite the enormous efforts in the biotechnological production of plant secondary metabolites, only three commercial processes have so far been implemented and no genetically modified plant is currently cultivated for the production of secondary metabolites. On the other hand, continuous and rapid advances in plant genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics could make the production of plant natural products by cell culture, transgenic plants or transfected microbial cells much more relevant in the future. 

The project to develop corn hybrids resistant to imidazolinone herbicides has been very successful. Corn with excellent resistance characteristics was selected, and semidominant resistance alleles are being introduced into proprietary inbred lines of Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. Commercial corn hybrids resistant to imidazolinone herbicides will be the first major biotechnology product in cereals to enter the marketplace. 

Since then, the number of new drugs based on biotechnological production methods has increased dramatically, as has the number of companies in the biotechnology sector. While only a few start-ups populated the commercial biotechnology scene in the late 1970s and early 1980s, by the end of the century most major pharmaceutical companies had moved into the area and the worldwide number of biotech companies had grown to several thousand ... 

The ability to clone and express commercially useful quantities of recombinant human proteins in bacterial, insect cell, yeast fermentation systems, or transgenic animals has enabled the development and introduction into the marketplace of otherwise unavailable lifesaving protein drugs. Numerous recombinant human protein and biotechnology products are in clinical trials or pending regulatory agency approval. 

The development of the process has been closely associated with the dairy industry. The use of spray drying in the dairy industry dates back to around 1800, but it was not until 1850 that it became possible to dry milk on industrial scale. Since then, this technology has been developed and expanded to cover a large food group which is now successfully spray dried. Over 20,000 spray dryers are estimated to be in use commercially, at present, to agro-chemical products, biotechnology products, fine and heavy chemicals, dairy products, foods, dyestuffs, mineral concentrates, and pharmaceuticals in evaporation capacities ranging from a few kg per hour to 50 tons/h (Mujumdar 2000). 

Routes towards based 1,4-BDO are currently under development. The production of succinic acid from biomass is currently being commercialized by companies like for example, BioAmber and the DSM-Roquette joint venture Reverdia [126]. Succinic acid is a potential feedstock for the production of 1,4-BDO via reduction of the diacid to the diol [127]. The US based company Genomatica claims it has been successful in developing technology for the direct biotechnological production of 1,4-BDO (see www.genomatica.com, accessed 22 June 2013 see also section 9.4.2). 

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