Monday, February 27, 2012

EMD Millipore opens water production site in China

By Don Seiffert, Correspondent

EMD Millipore in Billerica is continuing its expansion into China with a new lab water production site in Shanghai, the company announced today.

The facility will manufacture the Ming Che product line of tailor-made lab water purification systems which will be sold exclusively in China. The first batch of EMD Millipore’s China-made lab water products is scheduled to be launched in March 2012. The name, “Ming Che” means “clarity and purity” in Chinese.

The Ming Che products will cater to laboratories at private research facilities, contract research organizations, universities, government and academic institutes, as well as clinical centers, with applications ranging from in-vitro diagnostics to pharmaceutical vaccine production and sterile food packaging.

EMD Millipore is the Life Science division of Merck KGaA of Germany, and is one of the top three research and development investors in the life science tools industry, according to the company. The division has around 10,000 employees, operations in 67 countries and 2010 revenues of $2.2 billion, according to a written statement. It was acquired by Merck KGaA in 2010 for $7 billion.

In 2011, the division opened a Biopharmaceutical Technical and Training Center in Shanghai to provide support, training and validation services to customers with operations in China. The facility allows customers the opportunity to investigate their upstream and downstream processes, as well as environment monitoring processes with the support of EMD Millipore’s local, regional and international experts.

“China is one of our fastest growing regions,” said Robert Yates, president of EMD Millipore, in a written statement. Yates, who joined the company in 2011, added that the growth of the pharmaceutical, health care, and life science industries has increased demand for ultrapure water in Chinese laboratories.

Also on Monday, EMD Millipore’s TrueSpike technology was licensed exclusively by Charles River Laboratories International Inc. of Wilmington.  Charles River will collaborate with EMD Millipore to integrate TrueSpike into its viral clearance services that aim to improve drug product safety. No value was given for the deal.