Life sciences are a diverse area characterised by a wide variety of contamination challenges, ranging from routine bio-decontamination of production areas, to the management and biological control of accidental spillage of extremely hazardous micro-organisms. In the pharmaceutical environment for example microbial contamination can cause several problems including halting production lines, hindering drug discovery and causing potential health hazards to employees. Bioquell specialise in the design, manufacture and application of complete solutions for airborne and surface contamination in cGMP and cGLP environments and have been operating in the life sciences industry for many years to become a premier provider of hydrogen peroxide vapour (HPV) bio decontamination products and services as well as consultancy.

Research facilities such as universities, government organisations and private companies require microbiologically clean areas in which to conduct their research. These facilities range in size from a small single laboratory to large multi-storey research complexes containing a variety of laboratories, each with different bio-decontamination requirements.

Hydrogen peroxide vapour is an extremely effective sporicidal agent which can be used in many pharmaceutical, bio-medical and biosafety applications for biological control. The main benefits of HPV are:

• Rapid – the entire HPV decontamination process is rapid, and due to the high cost of production, research and development, downtime must be kept to an absolute minimum. The residue-free nature of the process also means no need to wipe down surfaces before production is resumed
• Wide spectrum - high level disinfectant effective against a wide range of biological agents and category III / IV pathogens
• Environmentally friendly – the only by products of the decontamination process are oxygen and water vapour
• Safe - HPV can be used to fumigate equipment without closing the lab, or for rooms without closing the building. It is non-carcinogenic (unlike formaldehyde) and the safety exposure level is ten times higher than chlorine dioxide.
• Material compatible - HPV does not damage sensitive electronic and electrical equipment or room finishes when used efficiently

Hydrogen peroxide vapour is rapidly becoming the accepted alternative to formaldehyde for regulatory health and safety agencies and is proven to be highly effective in deactivating vegetative and spore forming bacteria, viruses and fungi including those which can be encountered across various life sciences applications including:

The pharmaceutical industry in particular requires microbiologically clean areas primarily for production and R&D with complete biological control. The industry is governed by certain regulatory bodies, which impose standards for microbiological cleanliness and set requirements for regular, certified bio-decontamination of certain areas. The use of bacterial endospores, typically Geobacillus stearothermophilus, as a Biological Indicator (BI) to measure the success of decontamination is a common standard across all sectors. Bioquell is able to provide fully verified bio-decontamination solutions, including the use of BI's, designed to meet these standards. BIOQUELL also has an experienced validation team if validation of our services is required.

There are a number of deployment applications that can be deployed using Bioquell's HPV technology. These include:

• Annual shutdown bio-decontamination
• Commissioning bio-decontamination
• De-commissioning bio-decontamination of areas used for pathogen work
• Eradication of problematic micro-organisms from production lines and laboratory areas
• Emergency bio-decontamination for accidental release or spillage of micro-organisms
• Routine bio-decontamination of high containment level laboratories
• Regular cleanroom bio-decontamination
• Isolator and pass-through bio-decontamination
• Biological safety cabinet bio-decontamination
• Eradication of problem micro-organisms contaminating laboratory results and invalidating experiments