MilliporeSigma and Stelis Biopharma Open First Joint Bioprocess Scale-up Lab in India

• Joint lab provides end-to-end solutions from bioprocess development to manufacturing for pre-clinical, clinical and commercial supply
• Accelerates product availability for clinical trials with greater reliability, cost effectiveness
• Offers seamless, robust transfer of optimized processes from small-scale R&D lab to large-scale commercial manufacturing

Billerica, Massachusetts, May 12, 2017 — MilliporeSigma today announced the opening of a new joint Process Scale-Up Lab in Bengaluru, India to provide end-to-end solutions from process development to scale-up manufacturing for pre-clinical, clinical and commercial supply.

“Both MilliporeSigma and Stelis bring technological expertise and an extensive bioprocess development and manufacturing portfolio that will help customers accelerate development of biopharmaceuticals for clinical trials and manufacturing with greater reliability and cost effectiveness,” said Udit Batra, CEO, MilliporeSigma.

The collaboration reinforces MilliporeSigma’s position as the premier supplier of process development and clinical state manufacturing solutions, materials and services needed for biologics production.

“In the biopharma space, where the process is the product, the Process Scale-Up Lab fulfils a critical need by offering clients a reliable process bridge between R&D and commercial scales,” said Joe Thomas, CEO of Stelis Biopharma. “The collaboration with MilliporeSigma completes the value proposition for CDMO customers by providing an end-to-end solution from process development and scale-up through to manufacturing for pre-clinical, clinical and commercial supply.”

The lab, located at the Stelis Biopharma R&D Facility in Bengaluru, was built as a centre of excellence for process scale-up and manufacturing services. The collaboration brings together Stelis’ end-to-end capabilities in high-yield bioprocess development from cell line to commercial manufacturing scale and MilliporeSigma’s industry leading technological expertise in bioprocessing.

The lab and a soon-to-be-completed cGMP manufacturing facility will house MilliporeSigma’s portfolio of Mobius® bioprocessing equipment and single-use manufacturing components. MilliporeSigma will provide process know-how and application knowledge to help establish the single-use platform technologies at Stelis as part of the collaboration.

About the Life Science Business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany

The Life Science business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, which operates as MilliporeSigma in the U.S. and Canada, has some 22,000 employees and 59 manufacturing sites worldwide, with a portfolio of more than 300,000 products focused on scientific discovery, biomanufacturing, and testing services.

Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, a leading science and technology company, operates across healthcare, life science, and electronics. Around 58,000 employees work to make a positive difference to millions of people’s lives every day by creating more joyful and sustainable ways to live. From advancing gene-editing technologies and discovering unique ways to treat the most challenging diseases to enabling the intelligence of devices – the company is everywhere. In 2020, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany generated sales of € 17.5 billion in 66 countries.

The company holds the global rights to the name and trademark “Merck” internationally. The only exceptions are the United States and Canada, where the business sectors of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany operate as EMD Serono in healthcare, MilliporeSigma in life science, and EMD Electronics. Since its founding in 1668, scientific exploration and responsible entrepreneurship have been key to the company’s technological and scientific advances. To this day, the founding family remains the majority owner of the publicly listed company. For more information about Merck, KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, visit  www.emdgroup.com.