Future of Microcarriers and Recent Developments

The global microcarrier market was valued USD 1.83 Billion in 2021 and is expected to exhibit a CAGR of 9.32% over the forecast period from 2021 to 2030, as per a market study by Quince Market Insights. 

The rising demand for cell-based vaccines and increased R&D spending for cell and gene research by pharmaceutical and biotechnology businesses are likely to propel the global market forward. Another important aspect driving the global microcarrier market's expansion is technological advancement.

Microcarriers are small polymeric beads with a solid matrix that provide a surface for the suspended cell culture to attach to. A microcarrier's diameter is usually between 100 and 300 millimeters. Microcarriers are essentially a support matrix, and their primary purpose is to facilitate the development of adherent cells in bioreactors during vaccine and biologic synthesis. Microcarriers provide several significant advantages, including the capacity to accurately control cell growth conditions in sophisticated bioreactors, a reduction in the number of incubators necessary, and simplicity of scale-up. Demand for microcarriers in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries has been increasing as a result of these benefits, which will provide a huge boost to market growth.

The increased need for stem cell therapy and the rising cancer burden will force the microcarrier market forward. Furthermore, the likelihood of virus pandemics has increased significantly in recent years, owing to rising population, increased human-animal contact, and climate change. As a result, the need for vaccinations is likely to rise, providing a huge boost to the global market for microcarriers. The recent coronavirus or COVID-19 outbreak, for example, has increased demand for vaccines, causing major pharmaceutical companies to ramp up their vaccine R&D efforts. The worldwide microcarrier market has gotten a boost as cell culture has become an important aspect of vaccine development.

Cell culture is a significantly more efficient technology with a shorter lead time that is also ideal for large-scale vaccine manufacturing. As a result, it is preferred to the time-consuming method of extracting viruses from chicken eggs previously used. Furthermore, according to the findings of multiple clinical trials, cell-based vaccinations are more effective, safer, and efficacious than egg-based vaccines. As a result, demand for cell-based vaccinations has risen, pushing up need for microcarriers for commercial vaccine production on a wide scale. Apart from this, factors such as the rising frequency of diseases needing cell therapy, technological breakthroughs in microcarrier development, and increased R&D expenditure by biopharmaceutical firms and research institutes would propel the worldwide microcarrier market forward. Furthermore, rising demand for monoclonal antibodies would provide market possibilities due to the growing popularity of targeted treatments for cancer and other chronic conditions such as autoimmune diseases.

Microcarriers, on the other hand, are mostly utilised in stem cell biology, which entails substantial R&D on new therapies and necessitates high-quality equipment, reagents, and media. As a result, the price of cell biology research has skyrocketed in recent years. Furthermore, the expense of cell biology research has increased due to the necessity to follow regulatory guidelines. The high expense of stem cell biology research could be a significant impediment to the microcarrier business.

Global Microcarrier Market Trends

Microcarriers help to build cost-effective cells by lowering both variable and fixed costs in large-scale manufacturing. As a result of technological advancements, the current situation has altered, and the role of microcarriers in cell treatment has increased. Dissolvable microcarriers, for example, are now on the market and are made of cross-linked polysaccharide polymers that dissolve easily during the cell harvesting process. Because the microcarriers are totally dissolved, there is no need for separation, and the downstream process operates smoothly. As a result, these microcarriers may prove effective in large-scale cell therapy or cell production.

In the pharmaceutical business, cell culture is becoming a more significant part of vaccine research. Vaccines were previously made by culturing and removing viruses from chicken eggs, which was a time-consuming process. Cell-based vaccine development has emerged as a far more efficient strategy in this regard, due to its capacity to make vaccines in bigger quantities as needed and shorter lead time. In addition to these benefits, clinical trials have demonstrated that cell-based vaccines are as dependable, healthful, and efficacious as egg-based immunizations. Over the course of the study, these advantages are projected to fuel the worldwide microcarrier market's expansion. 

Recent Developments in the Global Microcarrier Market 

• January 2021 – The 500 L HyPerforma DynaDrive S.U.B. system from Thermo Fisher Scientific (U.S.) offers better performance and scalability for superior cell culture performance.
• November 2020 – Researchers from the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Science and Technology (SMART) created a dissolvable, gelatin-based microcarrier for large-scale cell production and expansion that gives improved yield and cost-effectiveness.
• October 2020 – Cytiva (U.S.), a global provider of medicines research and manufacturing technology and services, announced plans to establish an 80,000-square-foot production facility in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, by the end of 2020. In addition, the corporation spent USD 500 million to expand its global manufacturing capacity.
• April 2020 – Danaher Corporation's (U.S.) SoloHill portfolio was acquired by Sartorius. Danaher's bio science division included SoloHill, which specialized in microcarrier technology. Sartorius has added to its microcarrier product line with this acquisition.

Key players: 

Thermo Fisher Scientific (Waltham, Massachusetts), Corning Incorporated (Corning (city), New York), Merck (Kenilworth, New Jersey), Lonza Group (Basel), Getinge AB (Gothenburg), ChemoMetec (Scandinavia), Cesco Bioengineering (Trevose, Pennsylvania), Himedia Laboratories (Mumbai, India), Esco VacciXcell (Changi South, Singapore), Sartorius(Sartorius), Danaher Corporation(Washington, D.C), Becton(Franklin Lakes, NJ), Dickinson and Company (Franklin Lakes, New Jersey), and Eppendorf AG (Barkhausenweg 1, Hamburg)