MilliporeSigma Lab Earns ISO Accreditation for Quality Control of Culture Media

• Ensures culture media meet international standards for laboratory quality systems
• Provides benchmark for compliance and accuracy in microbial testing of food and water samples

Billerica, Massachusetts, September 13, 2016 — MilliporeSigma today announced that its microbiology quality control laboratory in Eppelheim, Germany, is now accredited for the quality control of the ReadyPlate™ and ReadyTube™ culture media tested there.

The ISO/IEC-17025:2005 accreditation, issued by Germany’s national accreditation body, is the international standard in testing and calibration for laboratory quality systems, and ensures full compliance of the lab’s ReadyPlate™ and ReadyTube™ culture media with the new mandatory standard ISO 11133:2014 concerning the preparation, production, storage and performance testing of culture media.

The accreditation reflects MilliporeSigma’s commitment to ensure that the company’s facilities and products meet the latest and the most stringent international standards for laboratory quality systems. The accreditation also provides a benchmark for lab competence for specific types of testing, measurement and calibration, informing global customers that test data supplied by the lab are accurate and reliable.

Earlier this year, the company’s microbiology quality control laboratory in Darmstadt, Germany, received the same accreditation.

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 19,000 employees and 65 manufacturing sites worldwide, with a portfolio of more than 300,000 products enabling scientific discovery. Udit Batra is the global chief executive officer of MilliporeSigma.

Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany completed its $17 billion acquisition of Sigma-Aldrich in November 2015, creating a leader in the $125 billion global life science industry.

Merck KGaA of Darmstadt, Germany is a leading company for innovative and top-quality high-tech products in healthcare, life science and performance materials. The company has six businesses – Biopharmaceuticals, Consumer Health, Allergopharma, Biosimilars, Life Science and Performance Materials – and generated sales of € 12.85 billion in 2015. Around 50,000 employees work in 66 countries to improve the quality of life for patients, to foster the success of customers and to help meet global challenges.

Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany is the world’s oldest pharmaceutical and chemical company – since 1668, the company has stood for innovation, business success and responsible entrepreneurship. Holding an approximately 70 percent interest, the founding family remains the majority owner of the company to this day. Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany holds the global rights to the name and the trademark “Merck” internationally except for the United States and Canada, where the company operates as EMD Serono, MilliporeSigma and EMD Performance Materials.