Germany-based biotech company The Cultivated B (TCB) has announced the availability of its AUXO V industrial-grade bioreactor and the start of rapid-delivery manufacturing at its plant in Burlington, Ontario, Canada.

The announcement represents a significant milestone as it addresses the cellular agriculture industry’s urgent need to dramatically increase global capacity to reach commercial viability.

TCB says that as bioreactor delivery times from other vendors can be as much as two years, producers of cell-based meats, medicines and personal care products based on cellular agriculture and precision fermentation face challenges in scaling up from the lab to commercial manufacturing.

TCB intends to bridge the barrier to industry growth with bioreactor delivery times of only “a few weeks,” as well as novel, easy-to-use designs that make equipment operator training and skills transfer efficient.

Hamid Noori, CEO of The Cultivated B, said: “The recent USDA approvals for cultivated meat producers are evidence that the industry is quickly advancing, but producers can’t scale their scientific and regulatory breakthroughs from the lab to commercial production without the ability to readily purchase and easily operate bioreactors."

He continued: "TCB is disrupting the industry in two ways: first, by aiming to make our industrial-grade bioreactors available with delivery times of only two to four weeks; and second, by designing a bioreactor that can be operated by non-experts with only a few days of training. We’re changing the game for the cellular agriculture industry."

CEO and managing director Hamid Noori (right) with manufacturing supervisor Dan Gudgeon (left)

TCB’s AUXO V bioreactors offer a “unique combination of utility and sustainability”. Unlike traditional bioreactors, AUXO V has been engineered by industrial designers to make them easy to use by non-experts. Using a human-machine interface and programmable logic controller system from Siemens, production personnel can be trained to use the bioreactor control system in “a few days”.

The new bioreactor systems focus on sustainability, eliminating the industry’s traditional single-use approach to bioreactors. Instead, AUXO V bioreactors are made of high-grade stainless steel, which makes them sterilisable and reusable.

According to TCB, the “AUXO V multi-use bioreactor vessels are cost-effective, flexible and customisable”. They are available in a wide range of sizes from lab scale to industrial scale – up to 25,000 litres – and are equipped with multiple sensors and impellers for different organisms, such as animal cells, bacteria or yeast.