Researchers develop system to manufacture range of bio-pharmaceuticals on demand

Researchers have developed a production system capable of manufacturing a range of bio-pharmaceuticals on demand to help doctors treat patients in remote or developing parts of the world like India, where getting rapid access to drugs could be challenging.

Bio-pharmaceutical drugs were used in a wide range of therapies including vaccines and treatments for diabetes and cancer, but these were typically produced in large, centralised fermentation plants and transporting them to the treatment site could be expensive and time-consuming.

With the new system, developed by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, it was possible to produce a single dose of treatment from a compact device containing a small droplet of cells in a liquid.

A recent issue of the journal Nature, carried a description of the system.

"Imagine you were on Mars or in a remote desert, without access to a full formulary, you could program the yeast to produce drugs on demand locally," said senior study author Tim Lu, IANS reported.

It is also possible to carry the system onto the battlefield to produce treatments at the point of care.

It can also be used to produce a vaccine to prevent a disease outbreak in a remote village.

The system is based on a programmable strain of yeast, Pichia pastoris, which could be induced to express one of two therapeutic proteins when exposed to a particular chemical trigger, according to researchers.

"We altered the yeast so it could be more easily genetically modified, and could include more than one therapeutic in its repertoire," said Lu, PTI reported.