Friday, January 7, 2011

Industrial Visit


Last Wednesday, half of the class went to two bionexus status companies which are Stellagen Sdn. Bhd and Inno biologics Sdn. Bhd. Stellagen sdn bhd is a local biotechnology company with the primary objective of identifying, developing and commercialising technologies related to animal health, consumer health, microbiology and biochemical industries. This company was established on year 2003 founded by Tan Sri Syed Jalaluddin bin Syed Salim. It is located in Batu Caves, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia.

The core businesses of this company are research, development, production and commercialization of probiotics for poultry which is chicken. Stella gen has received many awards and recognition which are Gold Award at the Biotechnology Asia 2005 Exhibition, Gold Medal at the 14th International Invention, Innovation, Industrial Design and Technology Exhibition (I-TEX) 2003, Best Biotechnology award at the 14th International Invention, Innovation, Industrial Design and Technology Exhibition (I-TEX) 2003 and Gold Medal at the Universiti Putra Malaysia Invention and Research Exhibition 2003.


Currently, Stellagen is in the process of commercialising its first product, Stellarlac (tm), which has undergone a 12 years research in University Putra Malaysia. This product is a feed supplement for poultry and it is meant to replace the antibiotics as growth promoter. It is known as probiotic since the product is consisted of 11 strains of friendly bacteria that can improve a chicken's intestinal bacteria balance and its digestion of chicken feed. The examples of the Bacteria used for producing the probiotics are Lactobacillus brevis, L. salivarius, L. reuteri and L. gallinarum. All of the bacteria are grown in the bioreactors with 37 °C as the optimal growth temperature. It also helps to restore the presence of beneficial bacteria, which strengthen the intestinal system against disease-causing organisms. This makes StellarLac the most suitable alternative for antibiotics as growth promoter since the usage of the latter was banned internationally starting from 1 january 2006.

 Chicken supplemented with StellarLac are safe for human consumption as they are free from antibiotic residue and antibiotic growth promoters. They also have a lower content of fat and cholesterol. Therefore, the consumption of these chickens contributes to a healthier diet and lifestyle. Stellagen Company has brought us to visit their utility room, laboratory, fermentation room, cold room and last but not least is the packaging room. Utility room is where the productions of the raw material take part. Most of the raw materials are water and glucose. Reverse osmosis water is used as the supply material, cooling and boiling the system and sterilization. The multimedia filter and water softener machine are used to filter the raw water in order to become the reverse osmosis water.

Another company, which is Inno biologics Sdn.Bhd is specializes in mammalian cell culture technology and operates cGMP facility for the production of biopharmaceuticals. The facility is built to comply with European Medical Agency (EMEA) and United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulatory requirements. This company offer complete services from upstream to downstream operation for the development of the therapeutic proteins. The difference between Stellagen and Inno Biologics is about the product and services offered.

 Stellagen Company is based on product offering while Inno Biologics Company is based on services offering. The product offered by Stellagen Company is probiotics, the friendly bacteria which can protect the chicken against infection or unhealthy intestinal imbalance. The services offered by Inno Biologics Company are including cell line development, process development, cGMP manufacturing, antibody services and training to customers. Compared to the Inno biologics Sdn. Bhd, Stellagen Sdn. Bhd is a small built company which only has five people working 24 hours together consist of one woman and four gentlemen.

Stellagen Sdn. Bhd is now planning to do probiotics research on duck, bird and fish in order to broaden their market potential in the future. In addition, they are also planning to penetrate five percent of the market potential in Malaysia. They are also going to increase their customer by penetrating the market in India, Iran, China and Maldives.

As the conclusion, even though Stellagen is a small built company, but they will have a bright future because there will be the increasing of awareness about the importance of probiotics used in chicken instead of by using antibiotics which can be dangerous for human health.

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