Spotlight on

BioProcessing & Industrial BioTech

Making bioproducts is far from easy, often requiring an in-depth understanding of cellular culture dynamics, cell biology & metabolism, fluid dynamics, process engineering, bioreactor design, biochemical and dynamic aspects of purification processes, process control, and data driven modelling. This work is absolutely crucial, without bioprocessing there is no product!  Conversely, improvements in any aspect of bioprocessing can have enormous value as even small productivity or quality improvements to such high value products are impactful, and improvements can often apply to multiple products.  

Our advanced bioprocessing team has extensive experience obtaining and defending IP in this complex field, both in relation to upstream and downstream processes innovation. We have a multidisciplinary team that mirrors the complexity and diversity of technical expertise of our clients working in this field, including experts in cell biology and biochemistry and their specific implications to bioprocessing, traditional bioprocessing including running and optimising fermentation processes, data & AI driven analysis of bioprocesses including for monitoring, prediction and optimisation of bioprocesses, dynamical modelling of bioprocesses, process engineering, and bioreactor design. 

We work together across different technical fields to make sure that all aspects are properly considered, so that the value of your IP is maximised. We understand intimately the complex technical, practical and commercial realities of working in this high value, highly regulated industry. We have successfully defended high value patent portfolios in this field, as well as helped our clients navigate freedom to operate. We are experts in drafting for success in all aspects of upstream and downstream processes. 

Read our Blogs

Gene Therapy and Longevity: Transforming the Future of Healthy Aging

Gene Therapy and Longevity: Transforming the Future of Healthy Aging

by Katherine Collins

Building on the success of gene therapies in treating rare diseases, the field is now rapidly evolving into a cornerstone of longevity science. By targeting the biological mechanisms of aging at the ...

5 reasons intellectual property is important for food-tech start-ups

5 reasons intellectual property is important for food-tech start-ups

by Nick Sutcliffe

Many food-tech start-ups we speak with say they're not too concerned about intellectual property. However, we always emphasize its importance. Here are five key reasons why we believe it deserves ...

A Boost for Sustainable Agriculture: The Promise of the US “Plant Biostimulant Act”

A Boost for Sustainable Agriculture: The Promise of the US “Plant Biostimulant Act”

by Ben Tolley

In a welcome development for sustainable agriculture, United States Representatives Jimmy Panetta (CA-19) and Jim Baird (IN-04) have introduced the Plant Biostimulant Act of 2025; a bipartisan ...

New treatments for women’s pain

New treatments for women’s pain

by Fay Allen

In a previous blog we discussed the gender pain gap and how attitudes and access to treatment of women’s pain is harming women. Unfortunately, even if women’s pain is believed by their healthcare ...

Why women’s health is such a pain: the gender pain gap

Why women’s health is such a pain: the gender pain gap

by Fay Allen

Many women’s health conditions are associated with pain, for example dysmenorrhea (period pain), endometriosis, adenomyosis, interstitial cystitis (IC), vulvodynia, chronic pelvic pain, UTIs and ...

Couriers for Cures: The Next Generation of Delivery Methods for Gene Therapy

Couriers for Cures: The Next Generation of Delivery Methods for Gene Therapy

by Katie Dale

A record number of gene therapies achieved regulatory approval in 2024, transforming how biopharma companies treat and potentially cure certain diseases. However, the forecast for gene therapy in ...

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Bioprocessing & Industrial Biotechnology - Protecting Innovation

With the development of increasingly advanced therapeutics and other products - from vaccines and cell therapies to food products and biofuels - bioprocessing and industrial biotechnology are becoming more important than ever.

Developing and scaling up biotechnological processes can be technically challenging and require significant investment in research and development.

Patent protection enables to secure these advancements and creates a competitive advantage for the innovators in this field.  It  is no surprise that patents covering platform technologies in biotech manufacturing are highly valuable and often challenged  by third parties.

Our team has significant  experience in drafting and defending bioprocessing patents.  We have successfully defended patents protecting antibody manufacturing and processing methods, including in multi-opponent EPO opposition proceedings.

We understand the challenges associated with developing bioprocessing and manufacturing methods.  Inventions in this field often lie on great technical stories that involve creative solutions to technical problems that only arise, or become particularly acute during large scale industrial processes.  For example, the recognition of a previously unnoticed problem during early-stage development, such as the discovery that certain cell culture components are the cause for problematic visual characteristics in the bioproduct, or that surprising loss of intact antibody yield during scaled-up manufacture is due to specific redox reactions in the cell culture fluid following fermentation, or that purification methods successfully used at laboratory scale introduce undesirable impurities into product that needs to be overcome when purification is scaled-up.  The research leading to the recognition of these problems and the steps taken to solve them in an imaginative way may form the basis of a strong inventive story which is worthy of patent protection, but one where an understanding of bioprocessing is needed to properly draft the strong patent applications.

Forward Magazines Overlapping 8

Mewburn Ellis

FORWARD MAGAZINE

Mewburn Ellis Forward is a biannual publication that celebrates the best of innovation and exploration. Through its pages we hope to inform and entertain, but also to encourage discussion about the most compelling developments taking place in the scientific and entrepreneurial world. Along the way, we’ll engage with the IP challenges that international organisations face every day.