are heat and shear sensitive. In addition, the growth rate of mammalian cells is very slow, lasting from days to several months. While there are substantial differences between microbial and mammalian technologies (e.g., the volume / value relationships are 10 $/kg and 100 tons for microbial, 1,000,000 $/kg and 10 kilograms for mammalian technology; the cycle times are 2–4 and 10–20 days, respectively), they are even more pronounced between mammalian and synthetic chemical technology (see Table 1). The mammalian cell production process, as used for most biopharmaceuticals, is divided into the four main steps: (1) Cultivation, i.e. reproduction of the cells; (2) Fermentation, i.e. the actual production of the protein, typically in 10,000 Liter, or multiples, bioreactors; (3) Purification, i.e. separation of the cells from the culture medium and purification, mostly by chromatography, (4) Formulation, i.e. conversion of the sensitive proteins to a stable form. All steps are fully automated. The low productivity of the animal culture makes the technology expensive and vulnerable to contamination. Actually, as a small number of bacteria would soon outgrow a larger population of animal cells. Its main disadvantages are low volume productivity and the animal provenance. It is conceivable that other technologies, particularly plant cell production, will gain importance in future. Given the fundamental differences between the two process technologies, plants for mammalian cell culture technologies have to be built ex novo. The pro's and con's of an involvement of a fine chemical company in cell culture technology are listed below: Pros: Strong growth of demand: Today, biopharmaceuticals account for about $55–$80 billion, or 15% of the total pharmaceutical market. They are growing by 15% per year, i.e. three times faster than LMW drugs and are expected to pass the $150 billion per year threshold by 2015. Whereas just one out of the world's top ten drugs was a biopharmaceutical in 2001, the number went up to five in 2010 (see table 6) and is expected to increase further to eight by 2016 (see Table 2). The likelihood of developing a new biopharmaceutical successfully is significantly greater than in traditional drug development. 25% of biopharmaceuticals that enter Phase I of the regulatory process eventually are granted approval. The corresponding figure for conventional drugs is less than 6%. The traditionally large share of outsourcing. Small number of custom manufacturers with industrial-scale manufacturing capabilities in this demanding technology. In the Western hemisphere, primarily Boehringer-Ingelheim of Germany