In the News: Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN)

Tue, 14 Jun 2022 20:37:09 -0400
faculty, news, rao, research, spring-2022

excerpt from

Point-of-Care Drug Production Would Aid Patients and Industry

~By Gareth John Macdonald - March 1, 2022~

Making medicines at the bedside could help industry cut manufacturing costs and streamline supply chains. But turning point-of-care (POC) production into a reality means overcoming some major analytical and regulatory hurdles.

“POC bioprocessing is the next big thing,” says Govind Rao, PhD, director of the center for advanced sensor technology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, who looked at the potential benefits in a recent paper.

For industry, the elimination of manufacturing facility-related investment and running costs is the obvious advantage, Rao says.

“The hardware costs for a POC system should be around that of a high-end laptop. If disposable cartridges could be used with all the necessary reagents lyophilized, then production costs could compare favorably with centralized manufacturing,” he explains. “After all, the technology is not that different from that used in ink-jet printers and pod-based coffee makers!”

But facility costs are not the only benefit, according to Rao, who cites the potential for just-in-time production, the elimination of costly cold chain distribution networks, and the ability to tailor manufacturing to specific patients as other examples.

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full article: https://www.genengnews.com/topics/bioprocessing/point-of-care-drug-production-would-aid-patients-and-industry/