Merck Millipore Announces the Opening of its State-of-the-Art GMP Bioproduction Facility in Martillac, France

• Enables accelerated process development and production of proteins / monoclonal antibodies
• Incorporates single-use systems to manufacture GMP drug substance up to 200 liter scale, complemented by stainless steel bioreactors up to 1250 liter scale
• Provides customers with access to the latest process technologies, increasing speed to clinic and productivity

September 20, 2012, Darmstadt, Germany — Merck Millipore, the Life Science division of Merck, today announced the opening of its advanced GMP bioproduction facility in Martillac, France, offering a full, single-use process train to speed a molecule’s journey to the clinic. The site will serve users of Merck Millipore’s Provantage™ Biodevelopment and Clinical Supply Solutions, an innovative, “open source” manufacturing option that incorporates the latest technologies for upstream and downstream processes.

The open source approach provides customers with greater control over production. With a traditional outsourcing model, the customer’s process must fit the facility and the contract manufacturer controls the process. With ProVantage™ Solutions, Merck Millipore develops the process for further use by the customer.  

At the new facility, Merck Millipore provides access to proven technologies, process development expertise and validation services, offering a robust template that makes it possible to go from clone selection to GMP product in only 12 months. The facility offers GMP production of mammalian proteins for pre-clinical to phase II production at the 50 L to 1,250 L scale. For phase III and commercial production, customers can transfer manufacturing to any location, at any scale. This freedom brings enhanced flexibility to the molecule development and the manufacturing process.

“Merck Millipore leverages more than 25 years of biomanufacturing experience with 150 molecules in our new facility in France,” said Christophe Couturier, Vice President of Services and Solutions, Merck Millipore. “As the basis for Provantage™ Solutions, our experts complement customers’ internal capabilities in a way that combines the best of in-house production and conventional outsourcing. The end result is increased productivity and an accelerated time to market.”

For more information on the new facility and Provantage™ Solutions, please visit www.merckmillipore.com/provantage.

About Merck Millipore
Merck Millipore is the Life Science division of Merck KGaA of Germany and offers a broad range of innovative, performance products, services and business relationships that enable our customers’ success in research, development and production of biotech and pharmaceutical drug therapies. Through dedicated collaboration on new scientific and engineering insights, and as one of the top three R&D investors in the Life Science Tools industry, Merck Millipore serves as a strategic partner to customers and helps advance the promise of life science.

Headquartered in Billerica, Massachusetts, the division has around 10,000 employees, operations in 67 countries and 2011 revenues of EUR 2.4 billion. Merck Millipore operates as EMD Millipore in the U.S. and Canada.

Note: Merck KGaA or Merck shall mean Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany