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.

メルクについて
Merck（メルク）はヘルスケア、ライフサイエンス、パフォーマンスマテリアルズの分野における世界有数のサイエンスとテクノロジー企業です。がんや多発性硬化症のためのバイオ医薬品を用いた治療法から、科学研究と生産に関する最先端システム、スマートフォンや液晶テレビ向けの液晶材料にいたるまで、約53,000人の従業員が人々の暮らしをより良くする技術の一層の進歩を目指しています。2017年は66カ国で153億ユーロの売上高を計上しました。

メルクは1668年に創業された世界で最も歴史の長い医薬・化学品会社で、 創業家が今でも、上場企業が率いるメルクグループの株式の過半数を所有しています。メルクの名称およびブランドのグローバルな権利は、メルクが保有しています。唯一の例外は米国とカナダで、両国ではEMDセローノ、ミリポアシグマ、EMDパフォーマンスマテリアルズとして事業を行っています。