The procurement of FBS is very complex. Consider a market approaching supply base consolidation, driver of price is parent market, supply-demand dynamics add to more complexity in pricing and finally, supply chain disruptions, adulteration and quality issues. Procurement teams are faced with issues on fluctuating price, demand, quality. Additionally the regulatory authorities are growing stringent on the use of sera. This whitepaper examines the market, its subtleties and complexities and finally tries to address complexities faced by procurement through scenario analysis.

Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS) is the blood fraction that is devoid of cells. It is derived by centrifugation of the supernatant of coagulated fetal bovine blood.
FBS is added to eukaryotic cell culture media to promote growth.
FBS – Demand, Production and Supply
The FBS market being a by-product market is driven by not just the supply demand dynamics of FBS but the beef and cattle slaughter industries. Thus, production of FBS is not driven by end-use for FBS alone.

The demand for FBS arises from various end users including biopharmaceutical production, research, cell culture, immunodiagnostics, environmental research and education etc. With the faster growth in the cell culture market, the sera market is also growing.