Are sterilizing grade filters commodities ?

Sterilizing grade filters are once in awhile perceived a commodity item, especially by procurement departments, not realizing that this is far from truth. Technical departments choosing the right or better optimal sterilizing grade filter for a specific application understand the importance of the utilization of the optimal filter. If the filter is is chosen by pricing instead of performance, the actual costs is far higher than the savings of the price of a filter. Filter performance is not only measured by its retentivity, which is a required must anyway, but also by proper sizing, unspecific adsorption, premature fouling, thermal and mechanical stability etc. If he filter system is improperly sized, the hold-up volume will result in major product losses. Tests in unspecific adsorption showed potential losses of hundreds of thousands of dollars of product on the membrane surface. Sterilizing grade filters testing is of importance to find the optimally balanced filter for the specific application, then the procurement department can negotiate pricing, but should fully understand that the optimally balanced filter will safe far more money than a 20% discount.