From carboys to rigid containers: what are the top single-use bottles in biopharma today?

Despite the popularity of single-use bags for primary packaging, single-use bottles remain critical for storing, transferring, and sampling media, buffers, and drug substances throughout the biomanufacturing workflow. These sterile, reliable, and suitable for GMP use single-use containers are in high demand, whether they’re called carboys, rigid containers, or simply sterile bottles. The demand has grown with the rise of closed-system processing and flexible manufacturing, which is made possible by the automated dispensing of bottles with single-use technology.

PETG bottles vs. HDPE pharma bottles

The choice between PETG (Polyethylene Terephthalate Glycol-modified) and HDPE (High-Density Polyethylene) bottles in biopharmaceutical applications depends on the specific needs of the process.
While PETG bottles are best for media and buffer storage, sampling bottles or cryogenic/cold storage, HDPE bottles are best for bulk chemical storage, such as solvents, process chemicals, and buffer preparation and transfer.

Table 1: Comparison of PETG vs. HDPE bottles features

Top pharmaceutical bottles

Among the many options available, five bottle brands stand out for their widespread adoption, material quality, and application-specific design: Biotainer™, Bio-Simplex®, Purillex®, PharmaTainer™, and PureTain®. Below is a concise overview of each, highlighting their manufacturers, materials, typical use cases, and key specifications.

Nalgene Biotainer™ 

Thermo Fisher Scientific’s Biotainer™ bottles, part of the Nalgene™ product line, are made from PETG, HDPE, or PC (polycarbonate). Fisher Scientific bottles are widely used for media and buffer storage, sampling, and transport of pH-sensitive or chemically aggressive materials in GMP environments. Biotainer is favored due to suitability for freezing (PETG: –40 °C, PC: –100 °C) and availability in square and round formats. Sizes range from 5 mL to 20 L.

Purillex® 

Purillex® bottles by Savillex are PETG square media bottles with HDPE closures, engineered for secure packaging of media, buffers, and sera. The sterile bottles are ideal for both manual and automated fill lines in biomanufacturing. The sterile bottle is favored due to high clarity and molded graduations and its shatter-resistant properties. Sizes range from 125 mL to 2000 mL

Bio-Simplex®

Saint-Gobain’s Bio-Simplex® media bottle assemblies feature PETG bottles with C-Flex® TPE tubing and polyethylene caps. These are designed for closed-system fluid transfer, media storage, and bioreactor feeds with extremely low extractables risk. Sizes range from 60 mL to 2 L

PharmaTainer™

PharmaTainer™ bottles from SaniSure are available in PET or PC, designed for liquid transfer, storage, and transport in biomanufacturing. Produced in ISO Class 5 cleanrooms, they meet stringent regulatory standards. In addition, the bottles have leakproof caps without gaskets and are triple packaged for cleanroom compatibility. Unique serial numbers make SaniSure Pharmatainer carboys traceable. Sizes range from 10 mL to 20 L.

PureTain®

Parker’s PureTain® bottles are available in PETG or polycarbonate, optimized for freezing, transport, and storage of drug substances and intermediates. Their overmolded closures minimize leakage risk. They feature a patented sealing system and are validated for ultra-low temperatures to -80°C. Sizes range from 30 mL to 20 L.

Protecting bottles for ultra-low temperatures

Bottle RoSS® is the equivalent of the RoSS® shell for bottles. It protects the most vulnerable single-use components during cold chain, which are sterile tubings, gaskets and caps. These become brittle when frozen and therefore vulnerable for a sterile bottle’s integrity. Bottle RoSS® makes sterile bottles robust from the outside to protect bottle caps, tubing and connectors.

Bottle RoSS | Protecting bottles With Bottle RoSS the tubing on bottles is protected at glass-like sub-zero temperatures with the help of a soft 3D foam which hardens at frozen state. Any manufacturer of rigid containers from 500mL to 10L can be protected with Bottle RoSS.

Bottle-agnostic automated filling solutions

RoSS.FILL Bottle by Single Use Support is a fully automated, scalable filling platform designed to work with any type of single-use bottle, regardless of brand, shape, or material. Unlike traditional systems that require bottle-specific setups, RoSS.FILL Bottle offers a bottle-agnostic solution that simplifies and standardizes the filling process across various container types.

Key Features:

• Automated, high-throughput filling of up to 24 bottles per rack
• Modular setup for flexible and scalable dispensing of bottles and bags
• Integrated weighing and dosing for precise volume control
• Closed-system design for aseptic processing complying with 21 CFR, cGMP and Annex 1
• Scalable from lab-scale to commercial GMP manufacturing
• Reduces manual handling and risk of contamination

This flexibility makes RoSS.FILL Bottle an ideal solution for biopharma manufacturers seeking to streamline their fluid management operations while maintaining compatibility with their preferred bottle suppliers.

RoSS.FILL Bottle | Single-use bottle filling system The fully automated RoSS.FILL aseptic single-use bottle filling system enables worry-free filling and filtration of your liquid drug and non-drug substances into bottles. With highest filling accuracy, the single use filling system provides closed, parallel filling for bottles of up to 10L.

CDMOs and manufacturers can benefit from Single Use Support's full line of bottle filling equipment, including the RoSS.FILL pharma bottle filling machine and suitable single-use bottle assemblies. IRIS single-use assemblies are designed and configured based on your specifications and requirements. All components used for single-use bottle assembly comply with FDA, ISO, and other regulatory standards, guaranteeing aseptic handling of your materials.

IRIS single-use assemblies | Biopharma Fluid Transfer Single-use manifold assemblies are assembled single-use components that provide a sterile fluid flow of pharmaceutical products. We deliver manufacturer-independent single-use assemblies built to the highest quality standards in ISO 7 cleanrooms and sterilized within the shortest lead times.

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