What is “single-use”?
To pose the question in a grammatically-correct fashion, what are single-use products? In short, products used only once and then thrown out. Such products are made from plastic (polyamide, polycarbonate, polyethylene, polyethersulfone, polypropylene, polytetrafluorethylene, polyvinyl chloride, cellulose acetate, or ethylene vinyl acetate). The choice of material depends mostly on the function the product will have once it’s used in a processing system.
One of the purposes of single-use systems is to replace the status quo type of bioreactors. More about those can be found on our blog.
So what types of single-use products are there? A single-use product can be everything from a whole bioreactor system to a single tube-to-tube connector, as long as it’s made to be thrown away after one use (or sometimes a few uses). Again, depending on the product’s final use, the product assortment varies greatly. You can check out some single-use components under our “Single-use equipment” tab. We also offer preassembled single-use assemblies.
A few examples of single-use components we offer at Pharsol.
Why implement single-use technology in your process?
There are a few reasons why someone shouldn’t just turn a blind eye to using single-use technology in their process:
- Lower consumption of water and energy: using single-use technology in your bioprocess reduces water and energy consumption. As the products used are disposed after the process is finished, less water and energy is needed to clean the used equipment afterwards.
- Productivity boost: single-use equipment reduces the complexity of automation and manufacturing costs by eliminating the need for SIP systems. That allows full-scale manufacturing at a lower cost as the expensive machinery is removed from the whole process.
- Minimised risk of cross-contamination: disposing of the single-use equipment after finishing your product naturally minimizes the risk of cross-contamination. As the whole production path is discarded and then replaced for the production of the next product, there is almost no chance of cross-contamination.
- Time-saving: by offering flexibility and taking up less space on the manufacturing floor, this reduces the time needed to prepare new production lines set-up and validation. Single-use systems are designed to be set up, used, packed and disposed of quickly, making it possible to produce different products in the same production plant.
- Reduced costs: as already mentioned, the practicality of quickly setting up a processing line and disposing of it afterwards reduces costs everywhere. The most obvious reduction can be noted in the cleaning and sterilization processes, since some parts of the production line don’t have to be cleaned anymore. Consequently, this enables a smaller initial investment into early R&D efforts, making the whole production process a lot cheaper.
- Ease of disposal: the main benefit of single-use equipment is getting rid of it after using it for production. If your production line is made mostly out of single-use components, you can simply dispose of it after you are done with a batch of product. Throwing it out after you are done using it reduces the chance of cross-contamination and enables you to spend less money on cleaning the equipment afterwards. It’s usually made as a plug-n-play type of equipment, meaning that connecting it is as simple as disconnecting and disposing it.
Conclusion
Single-use systems/technologies/equipment is here to make bioproduction easier and cheaper. It is designed to be thrown out after using it and is, therefore, a faster means of producing your product. Single-use equipment lowers the consumption of water and energy, boosts productivity, minimizes the risk of cross-contamination, saves time, reduces costs and is very easy to get rid of. This type of equipment can be expected to be used in most of the biopharmaceutical production lines globally.
Sources:
Paving the way to a bright future for single-use bioprocessing:
https://www.europeanpharmaceuticalreview.com/article/85348/single-use-bioprocessing/
SINGLE-USE MARKET – Rise of Single-Use Technologies & Systems in Biopharmaceuticals
https://drug-dev.com/single-use-market-rise-of-single-use-technologies-systems-in-biopharmaceuticals/
Plastic not fantastic but single-use is still greener, says industry
https://www.biopharma-reporter.com/Article/2013/10/04/Plastic-not-fantastic-but-single-use-is-still-greener-says-industry