Merck Opens First Joint Bioprocess Scale-up Lab with Stelis Biopharma 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

Darmstadt, Germany, May 12, 2017 — Merck, a leading science and technology company, today announced the opening of its first 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. This lab, which is a collaboration with Stelis Biopharma, is located at the Stelis Biopharma R&D Facility in the Jigani industrial estate.

“Both Merck 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, Member of the Merck Executive Board and CEO, Life Science.

The collaboration reinforces Merck’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, our 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 Merck 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 is a center 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 Merck’s industry leading technological expertise in bioprocessing.

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

About Merck

Merck, 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 generated sales of € 17.5 billion in 66 countries.

Scientific exploration and responsible entrepreneurship have been key to Merck’s technological and scientific advances. This is how Merck has thrived since its founding in 1668. The founding family remains the majority owner of the publicly listed company. Merck holds the global rights to the Merck name and brand. The only exceptions are the United States and Canada, where the business sectors of Merck operate as EMD Serono in healthcare, MilliporeSigma in life science, and EMD Electronics.