Many pharmaceutical manufacturers are switching to continuous production from batch methods. In continuous production, active ingredients are produced in compact, closed units, leveraging automation and fewer manual interventions. Production steps carried out sequentially in a classic batch process are integrated in a continuous process. The main unique perceived benefit of pharmaceutical continuous manufacturing technology is that it brings about continued utilization of production capacity. This in turn serves to reduce fluctuations in production, improve yields, and lower costs of operation and equipment. On account of such advantages, the method is seeing swift uptake.
As per a report by Transparency Market Research, the global pharmaceutical continuous manufacturing technology market will likely rise at a healthy CAGR of 8.8% during the period between 2017 and 2025. Expanding at this pace, the market which was worth US$1.74 billion in 2016 is expected to attain a value of US$3.693 billion in 2025.
Apart from the aforementioned benefits, other advantages of pharmaceutical continuous manufacturing technology is the superior development speeds, higher process safety when employing hazardous chemistries, and the opportunity to perform reactions that cannot be run under batch processing.
Some of the key application segments of the global pharmaceutical continuous manufacturing technology market are biologics, dry powders, active pharmaceutical ingredients, etc. Of them, the segment of biologics accounts for a dominant position in the market. It held a share of about 35.3% in the global market in 2016. It was trailed by active pharmaceutical ingredient.
The key geographic regions in the global pharmaceutical continuous manufacturing technology market studied in the report are North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East and Africa. Among them, Europe leads the market with maximum share on the back of rising demand for superior technology from contract manufacturing organizations and pharmaceutical companies. The region accounted for a leading 35% share in the market in 2016. In the years ahead too, the region is expected to retain its leading position in the market by expanding at maximum pace. This is mainly on account of the early availability of advanced technologies and greater number of technology providers across the region.