PreferCo has collaborated with Glatt from Germany to establish the PreferCo-Glatt Centre of Excellence for Bioprocess Scale-Up in Genome Valley, which is a major milestone in enhancing the microbial precision fermentation capacity of India.
Unveiled at BioAsia 2026, the new Centre of Excellence is intended to fill the existing gap between laboratory-based research and pilot to pre-commercial production. The Centre of Excellence will facilitate scale-up bioreactor capacity of up to 1,500 liters, allowing organizations and research institutions to move from proof of concept to commercial production with reduced technical risk.
The project is in line with the BioE3 vision of the Government of India, which emphasizes biotechnology-driven growth in terms of economy, environment, and employment. The Centre of Excellence seeks to translate scientific innovation into commercially feasible biomanufacturing solutions through the development of fermentation scale-up infrastructure.
Scale-up capabilities extending beyond the biopharma industry:
Although the biopharmaceutical industry is an important focus area, the facility is designed to cater to the larger bioeconomy. Precision fermentation using microbes is applicable across industrial biotech, functional foods, bio-based chemicals, personal care, wellness, and sustainable materials.
Access to scale-up facilities has been a challenge that has persisted across startups, research institutions, and established companies. The Hyderabad facility aims to fill this gap by providing engineering standards that are world-class, along with entry points that are accessible to innovators in India and internationally.
Automation and AI integration from inception:
The centre is designed to integrate the latest automation, digital instrumentation, and AI-driven process intelligence. This is expected to enhance the reproducibility of processes, facilitate faster decision-making, and optimize process understanding during scale-up.
The PreferCo-Glatt Centre of Excellence is expected to enable the integration of global process knowledge and digital technologies into fermentation scale-up processes, thus optimizing time-to-market for high-value biological products.
The PreferCo-Glatt Centre of Excellence can play a pivotal role in the development of a competitive biomanufacturing industry in India, which has witnessed the rapid growth of its bioeconomy over the last decade.
