Merck Launches Viresolve® Barrier Capsule Filters to Protect Against Bioreactor Contamination

• Upstream virus filter specifically designed to filter cell culture media
• Protects bioreactor against a broad range of contaminants, including viruses, mycoplasma and bacteria
• Easily scalable from preclinical through commercial manufacturing

Darmstadt, Germany, February 13, 2018 — Merck, a leading science and technology company, today introduced Viresolve® Barrier capsule filters to reduce the risk of bioreactor contamination. Viresolve® Barrier filters are designed to remove viruses, mycoplasma and bacteria from cell culture media.

Viresolve® Barrier filters are a key component of Merck’s Viral Safety Assurance Program to mitigate the risk of viral contamination in upstream bioprocesses and minimize the potential impact on drug supply and patient safety. The Viral Safety Assurance Program takes a holistic approach to viral safety, offering solutions to prevent viruses from entering upstream processes, detect viruses in cells, raw materials and process intermediates and remove viruses in downstream processes.

“Viral contamination is a constant process threat,” said Andrew Bulpin, Head of the Process Solutions business, Life Science, at Merck. “One viral particle has the potential to initiate a bioreactor contamination. Our new Viresolve® Barrier filters reduce the risk of bioreactor contaminations that cause process downtime, costly investigations and possible drug supply disruptions that could impact patients.”

Scalable from bench through commercial manufacturing, Viresolve® Barrier filters offer high flux and high capacity virus filtration to ensure productivity, without impacting cell culture performance or protein quality attributes. Available now in sizes up to one square meter, including scalable micro filters for process development, these capsule filters are easy to implement directly in front of the bioreactor or into a media storage container.

The Viresolve® Barrier filter is the latest addition to the Viresolve® portfolio, now offering solutions for virus filtration in both upstream and downstream applications.

The Process Solutions business area of the Life Science business sector of Merck provides the industry’s most comprehensive portfolio of high quality products and services for biopharmaceutical manufacturing.

For more information on Viresolve® Barrier capsule filters visit merckmillipore.com/viresolvebarrier. For additional information on Merck’s Viral Safety Assurance Program, visit merckmillipore.com/virus-prevent-detect-remove. Visit an M Lab™ Collaboration Center to learn more about Viresolve Barrier® capsule filters and explore Merck’s Viral Safety Assurance Program.

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.