Techno-Economic Analysis of Automated iPSC Production

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) open up the unique perspective of manufacturing cell products for drug development and regenerative medicine in tissue-, disease- and patient-specific forms. iPSC can be multiplied almost without restriction and differentiated into cell types of all organs. The basis for clinical use of iPSC is a high number of cells (approximately 7 x 10(7) cells per treatment), which must be produced cost-effectively while maintaining reproducible and high quality. Compared to manual cell production, the automation of cell production offers a unique chance of reliable reproducibility of cells in addition to cost reduction and increased throughput. StemCellFactory is a prototype for a fully automated production of iPSC. However, in addition to the already tested functionality of the system, it must be shown that this automation brings necessary economic advantages. This paper presents that fully automated stem cell production offers economic advantages in addition to increased throughput and better quality. First, biological and technological basics for a fully automated production of iPSC are presented. Second, the basics for profitability calculation are presented. Third, profitability of both manual and automated production are calculated. Finally, different scenarios effecting the profitability of manual and automated production are compared.