The Proportion of Downstream Costs in Fermentative Production Processes

In the recent literature on industrial biotechnology, one can find many conflicting statements about the costs of downstream processing (DSP) as part of the total manufacturing costs of the products of fermentation processes. These statements are generally not accompanied by references that lead to properly documented source data. An analysis of available process data indicates a range of 45–92% for the contribution of DSP to production costs of biopharmaceuticals, so it is fair to state that DSP costs are dominating in this product sector. However, for bulk fermentation products, the available process data indicate a contribution of DSP of only 20–40% to the production costs. For these bulk products, 15–60% of the costs are due to carbohydrate purchase costs.