SubscribeTo balance durability and precision, Schering Plough opts for Watson-Marlow’s peristaltic pumps as an effective and long-lasting pumping solution for its vaccines
Schering Plough Plumps for Watson-Marlow
To achieve economical viability, most companies are forced to make compromises. While these decisions are often difficult, they promote cost-effectiveness and profitability.
Watson-Marlow Peristaltic Pumps
For some sectors, however, compromise isn't easy. Take the biopharmaceutical industry, where equipment is often used to process delicate compounds in extremely hazardous environments, which means reaching a happy medium between constituent protection and mass production can be difficult.
Richard Wood, production manager at Schering Plough, says that without Watson-Marlow's peristaltic pumps' delicate handling of vaccines and overall robustness, the company simply wouldn't be able to produce its attenuated oral coccidiosis vaccine for chickens, otherwise known as Paracox.
"The vaccine's parasite can be easily damaged when you use aggressive pumps," Richard explains. "If you use diaphragm pumps, for instance, you tend to get greater damage than if you use peristaltic pumps. If the parasite is damaged, you don't have the vaccine."
Oral Coccidiosis Chicken Vaccine Production
The live vaccine, in a translucent, aqueous suspension, is produced in huge quantities for large-scale poultry farms. Launched in 1986, Paracox has enjoyed commercial success with demand requiring an output of 100 million units annually.
Throughout its production, Paracox has been manufactured using Watson-Marlow's 600 and 700 series pumps, which are used to circulate material containing precious parasites that are critical to the live vaccine. Recently, Richard has added to the company's 14 single and double-headed pumps by specifying an additional 600 series pump to cope with further expansion.
An additional application for the pumps is filtering and separating process-critical solutions. Richard explains that during this process the circulators are often exposed to saturated saline solutions, which are aggressive but
necessary. "The saline solutions can corrode metal easily, but are essential to the separation process. The reliability and integrity of the pumps is therefore vital if we are to farm parasites in the commercial numbers required."
With an IP55 protection rating and a unique design that contains no valves, seals or glands, the 600 series pumps from Watson-Marlow are as tough as they are easy to use. Similarly, the 700 series pumps offer both reliability and performance through the LoadSureŽ tube element and pumphead-clamping system, which promotes enhanced operation and easy positioning.
For Schering Plough, Watson-Marlow's pumps provide a constant, dependable pumping solution that has helped the company develop a product over an 18-year period. "We've had enough experience with the Watson-Marlow pumps not to consider any other makes or suppliers," Richard says. "They're reliable, easy to maintain and perform very well."