Chemistry: molecular biology and microbiology – Apparatus
Patent
1994-11-29
1997-08-12
Redding, David A.
Chemistry: molecular biology and microbiology
Apparatus
4352871, 4352891, 4353081, 422 50, 422 99, 422129, 422187, 52 791, 52143, A01N 102, G01N 3350, E04H 100
Patent
active
056564910
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mobile-module plant for the development and the production of biotechnological products on a pilot scale comprising equipments for the production, separation, purification and finishing of said products.
2. Related Art and other Considerations
Firms of a biotechnologicaL character carry out essentially two types of activity: applied research and production.
Passage from one activity to the other implies the development of the production method on a pilot scale. Usually, the pilot plant is then also used for commercial production, at least until the quantity of the product required by the market does not impose the construction of a plant on a larger scale.
The development step on a pilot scale causes different types of problems to the entrepreneur facing them, first of all the financial resources.
Firms having sufficient financial means generally build a plant specific for the product under development. But this solution is not exempt from drawbacks; indeed, investments, in addition to being difficult to estimate, imply the purchase and installation of equipments that cannot usually be reused. Thus, when development has a negative result, the investment is a total loss. In addition, during development, the need can arise of having to use apparatus that are different from those already installed so that, even in this case, efforts and investments already made are brought to nought if the necessary changes cannot be made due to a lack of time or space. The time required to build a specific plant is fairly long, generally of the order of two years, and this causes a corresponding delay in the start of production, with a substantial increase in the project's financial risk. In fact, delays of this magnitude are well-known to be very dangerous in sectors subject to highly rapid technological development such as is the current case with biotechnoloy, because they may make obsolete the product and the development process, even during the plant's construction phase.
In turn, firms having insufficient financial resources find themselves in the position of having to entrust the development to firms specialized in third-party manufacturing, thus divulging their know-how and laying the foundations for possible conflicts in relation to the paternity of possible inventive contributions during the course of development.
SUMMARY
The object of the present invention is to solve the abovementioned problems by means of a system of mobile, movable modules that can be connected together and integrated one with the other and capable of forming, in a very short time, a plant for the development and production of biotechnological products on a pilot scale, having the desired characteristics. The plant can be disassembled just as quickly into the individual modules, which may be moved easily to other locations to be subsequently connected together and integrated one with the other or with other modules, so as to form another plant having features that may even be different from those of the first plant.
The object of the present invention is thus a mobile-module plant for the development and production of biotechnological products on a pilot scale comprising equipments for the production, separation, purification and finishing of said products and auxiliary equipments, characterized in that (i) the plant is comprised of at least two mobile modules suitable for being connected together and integrated one with the other, (ii) each of the mobile modules comprises a movable container, (iii) at least one of the movable containers is provided with a preselected own set of the equipments, and (iv) at least one of the movable containers constitutes an aseptic environment.
During the course of the present description and of the following claims, the term "aseptic" used in relation to a module or a container indicates that the environment of the module or container is provided with an air conditioning system such as to ensure values of temperature, relative humidity,
REFERENCES:
patent: 4850268 (1989-07-01), Saito et al.
patent: 5195922 (1993-03-01), Genco
patent: 5259812 (1993-11-01), Kleinsek
patent: 5366896 (1994-11-01), Margrey et al.
Analytical Chemistry, vol. 63, No. 11, 1 Jun. 1991, Columbus US pp. 641-642 644, A.R. Newman `Portable Analytical Instruments` see p. 644.
DD, C, 82 510 (Karl-Friedrich Poulheim) 12 Jun. 1971, see p. 2, paragraph 2-p. 3, paragraph 2; claim 1.
Cassani Giovanni Rodolfo
Lani Marina Barbara
Redding David A.
Snamprogettibiotecnologie S.p.A.
Tecnogen S.c.P.A.
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