2026-03-03

Andrew Gent, Head of Sales – Middle East & Asia, ChargePoint Technology, speaks to Akanki Sharma about advancing containment, sterility and operator safety in pharmaceutical production, highlighting the increasing need for robust containment solutions as the industry handles more highly potent APIs, oncology drugs, and complex formulations.

Q. Tell us in brief about ChargePoint Technology.

Andrew Gent: ChargePoint Technology is a market leader in powder and fluid containment and aseptic transfer technology for pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical drug manufacturers. Our powder transfer, flexible packaging and fluid management technology connect our customers’ manufacturing processes, enabling safe, reliable powder and fluid handling while providing operator safety and sterility assurance, protecting people, products and the environment.

Q. What problem in pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical manufacturing does ChargePoint primarily solve?

Andrew Gent: There is a need for a validated and reliable method of product transfer that complies with all the current regulations while ensuring operator safety, product integrity and sterility during the manufacturing process. ChargePoint Technology provides solutions and technology that connect our customers’ processes, ensuring the safe and reliable handling of powders while also delivering a user-friendly experience.

Q. In the area of flexible packaging, what innovations has ChargePoint introduced for sterile or hazardous material transfer?

Andrew Gent: We have recently expanded our flexible packaging range with two new innovative single-use bags. One is the ChargeBag XL, a 3D bag that holds up to 200 litre for handling bulk transfers of bio-pharmaceutical and chemical powders. We have also introduced the ChargeBag QF (Quick Fill), another innovation that is advantageous to many manufacturers, offering benefits such as quick fill and dispense for powders, particularly during buffer and cell culture media hydration, and when dispensing other critical raw materials in high-throughput production.

Our single-use products are produced in a cleanroom environment with highly-controlled manufacturing processes, ideal for GMP and sterile manufacturing with optional gamma sterilisation. 

ChargePoint’s ChargeBag range is produced with our HiPure ULP7, a proprietary LLDPE film with extremely high levels of integrity with optimised purity and robustness characteristics to safeguard the operator when handling toxic powders and sensitive ingredients.

Q. What advancements have you made in fluid management for biologics and cell/gene therapy workflows?

Andrew Gent: In bioprocessing, critical raw materials such as cell culture media and buffers must be delivered in liquid form at the point of use, often in substantial volumes. For facilities hydrating from bulk powder, this requires a carefully managed, end to end workflow—from receiving powder in buckets or drums, to hydrating it into liquid using bulk powder transfer bags and finally moving the prepared solution to the appropriate process step.

At ChargePoint, our range of ChargeBags enables safe, efficient filling, handling and transfer of bulk powder. Designed for seamless connection to the hydration system, these bags support fully contained powder movement and the film maximises powder recovery, ensuring consistent hydration performance and highly repeatable batch to batch results.

Once hydrated, our Terracon portfolio of liquid-handling solutions provides simple, reliable and efficient movement of the prepared raw material from the hydration suite to the process step. Together, this integrated workflow supports a controlled, high performance approach to managing critical liquid raw materials in modern bioprocessing operations.

Q. How do your systems integrate with the existing equipment or production lines in GMP environments?

Andrew Gent: ChargePoint’s products seamlessly connect manufacturers’ processes to enable them to achieve safe and reliable powder transfers. Our solutions are designed to be easily retrofitted and use minimal space. The company’s manual equipment is supplied with standard BS4825 tri-clamp connections, widely used in the industry.

Our automation requirements are simple and easy to incorporate into customers’ HMI control systems.

Q. What challenges do manufacturers face today in powder handling and sterile transfers?

Andrew Gent: Manufacturers face significant challenges in powder handling and sterile transfers today, as they must comply with the stringent requirements of EU GMP Annex 1 (and regional harmonisations) while also demonstrating validated containment performance for highly toxic or highly potent products. This dual obligation demands robust measures to protect operators, safeguard the environment and prevent cross contamination.

For companies exporting from India into Europe or the United States meeting global GMP standards requires exceptional process integrity, and the methods used for material transfer have become a critical focus area during regulatory inspections.

To satisfy these expectations, manufacturers must demonstrate a comprehensive contamination control strategy supported by safe, closed and reliable transfer technologies that minimise the risk of cross contamination and ensure patient safety. Ultimately, customers must be able to prove that their systems are fully validated and capable of consistently achieving these elevated levels of product quality.

Q. Which regions or markets are currently driving growth for ChargePoint?

Andrew Gent: We support manufacturers globally across Asia, India, the Middle East, Europe, North America and North Africa. Within each region, evolving manufacturing landscapes are constantly driving the need for our powder-handling technologies.

Q. Tell us about any upcoming product launches or technological developments you’re excited about.

Andrew Gent: ChargePoint is continuously innovating in containment, developing and bringing new, improved, and enhanced products and solutions to market in response to listening to our customers’ feedback, advancements in Annex 1 and broader industry needs; including developments in automation and robotics to advance and optimise manufacturing processes.