WMFTS’ BioPure to Showcase Single-Use Bioclamp with Refined Manufacturing at INTERPHEX 2025

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On April 1, 2025, BioPure, a provider of single-use solutions and part of Watson-Marlow Fluid Technology Solutions (WMFTS), announced that it has refined the manufacturing of its single-use sanitary connector, BioClamp, to offer sustainability benefits to users. The company will showcase the connector at INTERPHEX 2025, occurring April 1–3 in New York City.

BioPure, which introduced the first single-use sanitary bioclamp for bioprocessing in 1998, according to a company press release (1), has optimized BioClamp in terms of its design and its manufacturing process. Under the new manufacturing process and new design, the connector is 13% lighter in weight compared to the previous BioClamp model. The adoption of advanced automated assembly has also resulted in 26% less carbon dioxide emissions during manufacturing across the full lifecycle of the product (1). BioClamp securely attaches sanitary fittings and plays a crucial role in single-use critical fluid transfer lines.

“From enhanced production to shipment, use in a bioprocess and end-of-life disposal, BioClamp is designed for sustainability while maintaining the highest quality standards,” said Mark Lovallo, product manager for WMFTS, in the press release (1). “BioClamp is efficiently manufactured, pre-assembled, and packaged at our global network of state-of-the-art Class 7 cleanrooms, which gives users of our sanitary bioclamp confidence in quality and sustainability as they scale up their production. These facilities are ISO14001 certified and powered by renewable energy.”

An additional upgrade to the bioclamp is an advanced ergonomic hinge that makes it easier to close and simplifies the set-up of an assembly process, allowing for quick changeovers. Other features and benefits include:

• being made from United States Pharmacopeia Class VI glass-reinforced nylon
• reduced distortion on polymeric fittings when subjected to heat
• suitability for sterilization using autoclave and gamma irradiation
• availability of tamper-evident feature
• suitability for either single-use or multiple-use applications
• reliable availability of global manufacturing and supply network.

WMFTS has the goal of reaching net-zero for its scope 1 and 2 emissions (i.e., emissions that are in its direct control) and reducing scope 3 emissions (i.e., those emissions that the company is indirectly responsible for, up and down its value chain) by 2030. Optimizing the manufacturing process for the BioClamp connector is a significant step toward that goal.

Speaking with Nicole Hunter, head of Global WMArchitect at WMFTS last year at INTERPHEX 2024, the PharmTech Group discussed the importance of optimizing fluid-handling workflows in the bioprocessing space and the efficiencies that single-use technologies (SUTs) can offer for biomanufacturing (2).

“One of the main reasons to have really good workflows is to reduce the risk in your process. You want to … safeguard your therapeutic during the process and expedite getting that drug product to the patient,” Hunter said in the interview (2).

Hunter noted that the big advantages SUTs bring are flexibility and adaptability to bioprocessing. “What [SUTs] have been able to do—in moving away from stainless-steel systems—is to allow for quick changeover between drug products. One facility can make multiple drug products really easily; the manufacturing systems can be quickly assembled for the different drug products and changed out as, and when, needed. [SUT] also reduces risk of cross contamination because you're literally using that assembly for that drug product and then changing to another one,” she explained in the interview (2).

Attendees can visit WMFTS at Booth #2753 at INTERPHEX 2025.

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References

1. Watson-Marlow Fluid Technology Solutions. BioPure Advances Manufacturing of BioClamp to Bring Significant Sustainability Benefits to Its Users. Press Release. April 1, 2025.
2. Mirasol, F. Single-Use Technologies Reinforce Fluid-Handling Workflows (INTERPHEX 2024). PharmTech.com, April 18, 2024.