Serum refers to a pale yellow clear liquid that is separated after blood coagulation, removing fibrinogen and certain coagulation factors from the plasma. It contains various components such as plasma proteins, peptides, fats, carbohydrates, growth factors, hormones, and inorganic substances. These components play an important role in promoting cell growth and protecting cells from damage. Bovine serum, as one of the more common additives in cell culture, occupies a key position in cell culture.
Types of bovine serum
The gender, age, physiological conditions, and nutritional status of the blood donor animals can lead to differences in serum composition and its content. For bovine serum, based on whether the cow was born and the length of time since birth, bovine serum can be divided into fetal bovine serum, newborn bovine serum, calf serum, adult bovine serum, and donor bovine serum. There are differences in the definitions of different grades of bovine serum both domestically and internationally. Internationally, the European Pharmacopoeia and the United States Pharmacopeia are mainly referenced, while domestically, the 2020 edition of the 'Pharmacopoeia of the People's Republic of China' (hereinafter referred to as the Chinese Pharmacopoeia) is used as the standard. Among them, the Chinese Pharmacopoeia only makes relevant regulations for newborn bovine serum and fetal bovine serum.
Definitions of bovine serum at different grades at home and abroad
Source: Chinese Pharmacopoeia, US Pharmacopeia, European Pharmacopoeia
Bovine serum market situation
01
Application scenarios of bovine serum
Due to the relatively high content of foreign substances in calf serum and adult bovine serum, their components are also more complex, and there are many interfering factors in cell culture. Therefore, calf serum and adult bovine serum are not commonly used for cell culture but are more often used as blocking agents, diluents, etc. Currently, in the Chinese bovine serum market, fetal bovine serum and newborn bovine serum are more widely used. Newborn bovine serum is mainly used in vaccine production where cell culture requirements are not high, while fetal bovine serum is typically used for cells that require higher culture conditions.
Basic Research in Life Sciences:Such as the fields of cell biology, physiology, oncology, pathology, etc.;
Research, development and production of biologics such as vaccines, antibody drugs, and CGT:For example, hybridoma culture in the antibody drug discovery phase, 293 cell monolayer culture for CGT drugs, production of live vaccines against measles, mumps, rubella viruses, and varicella;
Therefore, the vast majority of application scenarios involving cell culture typically require the use of fetal bovine serum.
02
Upstream and downstream situation of bovine serum
The upstream of the bovine serum industry chain includes farms, ranches, slaughterhouses, various blood procurement institutions, etc. Changes in the global bovine population and the management of the global supply chain have a significant impact on the supply of bovine serum. The downstream of the industry chain includes manufacturers in fields such as biopharmaceuticals and in vitro diagnosis (IVD), laboratories in universities or hospitals, and other research institutions, which are greatly affected by national biomedical policies.
03
The market potential of bovine serum
Biomedicine, as one of the important sectors affecting national economy and people's livelihoods, has always received high attention from the national government. The government actively takes various policy measures to vigorously promote development from basic research to industrialization. At the same time, investment in research and development (R&D) and production in China's pharmaceutical industry has grown rapidly. According to Frost & Sullivan analysis, China leads the world in terms of R&D and production investment growth rates. In 2021, R&D and production investments were $31.9 billion and $55.2 billion respectively, with annual compound growth rates of 22.2% and 8.9% from 2017 to 2021. In addition, China's biopharmaceutical market has achieved rapid development. In 2021, the market size of biopharmaceuticals reached $63.5 billion, with an annual compound growth rate of 18.4% from 2017 to 2021. Based on bovine serum, which is one of the widely used serum varieties in the biomedical industry, with the rapid development of the biomedical industry, the demand for bovine serum has also grown rapidly. The bovine serum market holds great potential in the future.
Data source: Frost & Sullivan
Data source: Frost & Sullivan
Domestic and international bovine serum brands
Due to differences in the age regulations for blood collection from newborn cattle at home and abroad, most vaccine production domestically uses domestic newborn calf serum. Currently, domestic brands such as Sijiqing, Lanzhou Minhai, Jinyuan Kang, Rongye Biotechnology, etc., occupy a large share of the Chinese newborn calf serum market.
Foetal bovine serum is mainly imported, with traditional sources including Australia, New Zealand, the United States, South America (Uruguay & Brazil), and regions with developed animal husbandry such as Europe. Currently, the countries and regions approved for importing bovine serum in China include Australia, New Zealand, and Uruguay. The bovine serum products from countries or regions that have historically experienced outbreaks of diseases such as mad cow disease and blue tongue disease are listed as restricted imports.
Foreign brands of fetal bovine serum mainly include Gibco, Sigma, Hyclone, BI, etc. Among them, Gibco, Sigma, and Hyclone mainly use Australian blood sources and are relatively more expensive. After BI was acquired by Sartorius, it has temporarily withdrawn from the Chinese market. To some extent, foreign brands of fetal bovine serum have problems such as long supply cycles, forcing customers to choose to stock up in large quantities, which brings significant financial pressure to them.
Domestic brands mainly include ExCell Bio, which is one of the earlier national brands in China to produce imported blood-derived fetal bovine serum. It has established factories in China, Uruguay, and Australia, providing serum of different grades and origins. It offers high cost-effectiveness and a good reputation, making it one of the fastest-growing domestic brands in recent years.
Problems and development trends in the domestic bovine serum industry
01
The chaos in the bovine serum industry has improved, and the market is gradually becoming more standardized.
Due to issues related to supply chain management, the supply of fetal bovine serum products is relatively scarce, and the price of serum in the market has generally shown an upward trend. Some unscrupulous merchants take risks to smuggle fetal bovine serum in pursuit of profits. The price of smuggled fetal bovine serum is relatively cheap, but due to the unclear source and lack of technical safeguards in the blood collection environment, fetal bovine serum may carry infectious substances such as microorganisms and viruses like mad cow disease virus, bovine viral diarrhea virus, bovine parvovirus, rabies virus, etc., and its safety is unknown. Once it enters China, there are extremely high quarantine risks, which will pose a significant threat to the lives and health of the people.
With the promulgation and implementation of China's Biosecurity Law, the state has further strengthened supervision. Some fetal bovine serum products imported through informal channels such as smuggling will gradually disappear under state supervision. At the same time, when choosing fetal bovine serum, customers will also pay more attention to the strength and brand awareness of the manufacturer, jointly defending the country's biosecurity line of defense.
02
Domestic brands go global to serve customers worldwide
With the enhancement of China's national strength, Chinese brands have further gained recognition in the international market. 'In China for Global', 'Branding Overseas' has become a consensus among national brands, and the same is true for the bovine serum industry.
Currently, some domestic manufacturers are eager to try. For example, ExCell Bio has already been involved in the global bovine serum supply chain layout at an early stage and has established fetal bovine serum factories in Uruguay, Australia, and China. Among them, the annual production capacity of the Uruguayan serum factory is expected to reach 100,000 liters, and the company's overall annual production capacity will maintain rapid growth. While meeting the growing demand in China's biopharmaceutical market, the company also plans to make supply chain arrangements in multiple regions such as South America, aiming to serve the global market.
Conclusion
In the future, there is tremendous potential in the bovine serum market. At the same time, more domestic bovine serum manufacturers will also benchmark against international brands such as Gibco, setting sail for the world with Chinese brands.
