Recently, Dr. Udit Batra, CEO and President of Merck Millipore, and other executives from the company, attended Merck Millipore's media briefing in Shanghai. Dr. Udit Batra shared his views on the company's Chinese market development strategy, the recent acquisition of Sigma-Aldrich, and other issues with reporters.

Dr. Udit Batra, CEO and President of Merck Millipore, Mr. Victor Chen, senior vice president & head of region Asia, laboratory products, attended Merck Millipore's media briefing in Shanghai. Instrument.com.cn and other media were invited to attend the event.

The group presentation by Merck Millipore's executives in Shanghai highlights the high level of focus they are placing on the Chinese market. Dr. Batra said, "China is a very important market, Merck Millipore has maintained double-digit growth in China, and the Chinese market is growing 2.5 times more than other regions. Merck Millipore has achieved strong growth across the business in China, including biological sciences, laboratory solutions, and process technology solutions. In 2011, Merck acquired Tsinghua Tianyi, a leading supplier in the Chinese cell culture market, thereby enhancing the competitiveness of its biopharmaceutical business, while also achieving the goal of quickly and directly accessing the Chinese biopharmaceutical industry cell culture market segment.

Today the growth outlook of the global scientific instrument market is not optimistic, while the Chinese market still maintains strong growth momentum. In response to this situation, many multinational companies have increased their level of investment in the Chinese market. Dr. Batra believes that "in order to stabilize a leading position amid fierce market competition, it is vitally important to maintain product advantages worldwide. In recent years, Merck Millipore has increased investment in R&D in the Chinese market, and established good cooperative relationships with many Chinese customers. Merck Millipore has achieved particularly good success with its leading products used in protein analysis and cell analysis, and other advanced products."

Dr. Batra said, "The Chinese government continues to invest in food safety, pharmaceutical safety, scientific research, testing services and other fields in which Merck Millipore specializes. Therefore Merck Millipore has great development potential in China. With increasing demand and stricter requirements for product quality from pharmaceutical companies, universities and other customers in China, Merck Millipore seeks to develop high quality products to satisfy the needs of Chinese customers. This is also a key reason Merck Millipore is increasing R&D investment in the Chinese market."

Last September 22, Merck Millipore spent USD 17 billion on the acquisition of Sigma-Aldrich. Dr. Batra said "This is the largest acquisition in Merck's 350 years of history. The combination of both companies will provide more diverse products and services for customers around the world, including pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, and diagnostic and testing laboratories. Through this acquisition, Merck Millipore's product line has been hugely expanded, encompassing our antibodies business, analytical reagents and cell culture media business. In other words, Merck Millipore's three key businesses will benefit substantially from Sigma-Aldrich.

"Following the acquisition of Sigma-Aldrich, Merck Millipore's core capacity will expand significantly. Sigma-Aldrich has established a full range of product lines and a highly mature e-commerce platform that will increase the quantity of Merck Millipore's products and shorten the product delivery cycle, delivering more satisfaction to customers. In addition, Merck Millipore was not fully advantaged in R&D, but Sigma-Aldrich plays a leading role. It is a good complement to Merck Millipore's business. After the acquisition of Sigma-Aldrich, our performance in China is expected to double. Thus we are confident and optimistic about our future in this regard," said Batra.

On Merck Millipore's business development plans, Dr. Batra said, "In the future, Merck Millipore will pay more attention to end-product solutions. For example, our customers prefer disposable bioreactors, which offer quick reaction speeds and convenient production processes. Merck Millipore will target the needs of customers, and provide a full range of process services, covering raw materials, process development, follow-up technical support and data analysis, etc. What customers need is both small-sized disposable bioreactors for stem cells and large-sized disposable bioreactors for bulk production. Therefore, we provide a variety of reasonable solutions according to the individual needs of our customers."

About Merck Millipore
Merck Millipore is the life sciences division of Merck KGaA, located in Darmstadt, Germany. Merck KGaA is the world's oldest pharmaceutical and chemical company.

Merck Millipore is committed to continuous innovation in the field of life sciences, offering a wide range of mature tools, technologies, high-performance solutions and innovative products that help our customers succeed in research, development and production of biotechnology and pharmaceutical products.

With innovative products and customer service centers across the country, we have developed into a strong, adaptable and strategic partner, fully able to meet customers' demands.