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Dear Readers, Welcome to the latest issue of Mi
The life sciences sector’s rapid metamorphosis is obvious, stemming from innovations in the automation of labs, fluidics, digitalization, and sustainability. One individual leading these changes is Dr. Fritiof Pontén, CEO of Biotech Fluidics. His career has taken him from synthetic organic chemistry to global leadership in innovation, granting Dr. Pontén a thorough understanding of the trends in the future of scientific research and lab technologies.
In this exclusive Microbioz India interview, Dr. Fritiof Pontén describes the fluidics and flow management technologies in which he is immersed, and the professional developments that have shaped this emerging field at Biotech Fluidics. This emerging field is directed toward the optimization of labs in the pharmaceutical and biotechnological industries, as well as those performing analytics and those in the healthcare sector.
Automation, artificial intelligence, and sustainability are all encompassed in Dr. Pontén’s concepts for the scientific innovations of the next decade. The innovations and concepts that he presents further reveal the importance of scientific and customer-driven excellence in the life sciences.
This interview presents the innovations and concepts of one of the most advanced companies in the industry while also describing the importance of robust fluidic technologies, which will enable the scientific innovations of the future.
Dr. Fritiof Pontén :I was intrigued but the opportunity to create new molecules with the potential to help people and more specifically people with health issues. Behind this was of course a chemistry teacher that once opened my eyes to the fascinating world of organic molecules.
The combination of theory in reaction mechanism and 3D structure combined with the practical aspects fitted me perfectly and nurtured several of my sides.
Dr. Fritiof Pontén :I use my understanding of what the users actually need and demand from the instrument manufacturers to create the best business offering possible. Being able to communicate with customers based on own experience gives respect and trust in return.
Dr. Fritiof Pontén :Working from a very stable platform as the global premium distributor of IDEX Health & Science the targets have been sustainable growth of existing business, strong growth of products not origin from IDEX making Biotech Fluidics even stronger and more independent and generation of an increased OEM customer basis.
Dr. Fritiof Pontén :There is no compromise in the setup of the technology and sales team at Biotech Fluidics. The team has intentionally been setup with highly experienced and educated personnel where 50% have a MSc and the rest a PhD within well spread scientific areas.
It is only with an in depth understanding of the challenges the best solutions can be provided. In addition there is a lot of carry-over from areas solving hurdles in new ways. This does not only help sales but is also of kea importance to pick up solutions generation new products or applications of excising products.
In the end it is straight forward to make an excellent technical sales representative out of someone with a scientific background but much more challenging for a sales person to pick up the scientific excellence.
Dr. Fritiof Pontén :From many customers we receive that we are small enough to respect and care for them at the same time we are strong enough to keep inventory enabling flexible, fast and creative solutions differentiate us from the large and slow self-sufficient big companies in the field.
The solutions we bring to the market have often been stress tested with users validation both the need and the robustness of the offering.
Dr. Fritiof Pontén :The last year has been very intensive with several launches brought to the market
Dr. Fritiof Pontén :With my background in process development I know by heart that the sustainability of a process or a product is mainly dependent of the quality and robustness it offers. The solutions Biotech Fluidics offers are based on components of the highest quality delivered with the value add of critical competence. It is in our philosophy and DNA that all delivered solutions should bear the hallmark of care and quality to deliver the best performance to the end user. The nature of our industry makes re-makes and unknowns extremely costly.
Dr. Fritiof Pontén :R&D at Biotech Fluidics first of all plays the role of understanding and validating customer needs for new applications. With in-house R&D we can provide data and solutions for upcoming needs. Another aspect of our R&D is to work with inventors and developers where we can add the user and business understanding adding the extra value to the product. At the same time Biotech Fluidics is the excellent partner for developers that need to reach the market, to get their concepts and solutions within the doors of the high ranked OEM’s.
There is a very tough selection process often supported by our own in-house R&D used in the selection process for such products.
Dr. Fritiof Pontén :As stated above we work a lot with partners and candidate partners to find innovation that brings value to the market. We meet the key customers many of our partners have on their top target list.
With this contact we bring market intelligence and scientific understanding to the table and this is then used to give the products the competitive edge making them interesting enough for the OEM’s.
Dr. Fritiof Pontén, CEO of Biotech Fluidics
Dr. Fritiof Pontén :We know that the scientific and healthcare sector will continue to require high quality data and this demand will rather grow than decline with the integration of AI. For every new scientific brake throw based on fluidics there will be a demand for fluid management. Miniaturisation will continue and that will also increase the demands on the fluidic solutions. This is just as with self-driving cars that will also require suitable roads to drive on.
Sometimes you win – sometimes you learn must be the leading star and it is then combined with in depth understanding on what the market need.
Dr. Fritiof Pontén :Some challenges are very healthy such as cost pressure or pressure to deliver value for the money. But there is also other challenges and one of them is the huge conglomerates purchasing and often burying innovation in bureaucracy etc. Such super eaters rarely contributes to development of ground breaking developments.
Dr. Fritiof Pontén :Biotech Fluidics is active with offices in Sweden, Germany, USA and Japan but as the request of our products and services grew expansions will be seriously considered. With the trade agreement between EU and India a very interesting market is opening up.
Biotech Fluidics will also use the strong position to further develop the product portfolio with new product offerings.
We currently see a good growth into the MedTech sector with our degassers being included in for example the Abbott Alinity clinical analysers. The opportunities within this field are very demanding but also huge.
Dr. Fritiof Pontén :This is very difficult for me to judge on. But what I know for sure is that any technology or scientific field will use and measure more and more substile effects and that will in turn continue to raise the demands on the systems used to produce data. For fluidic systems this will mean that the demands on the components will only increase and in no way may such a fundamental thing as a gas bubble disturb.
Dr. Fritiof Pontén :Automation will continue and in combination with AI the outcome offers fantastic opportunities. Just as the use of computers did not create the paperless office, rather the contrary, automation and AI will further extend the need for robustness and reliability. Only such systems will also fill the aspect of sustainability.
