US-based life science MilliporeSigma, a subsidiary of German multinational Merck KGaA, has opened a $290m biosafety testing facility in Rockville, MD, USA. The site will help meet the growing demand for biosafety testing and analytical development.
The 23,000sqm building will concentrate services currently provided across four buildings into one space which will provide cell banking production, safety testing and development manufacturing. The new services will aim to improve Right First Time (RFT), the percentage of production that meets quality standards without needing correction, through enabling greater scientific collaboration, automation and digitization.
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According to Benjamin Hein, Merk KGaA’s head of life science services, “This expansion is the largest investment in contract testing in the company’s history and will allow us to drive automation and technology development in one integrated hub.”
He added the expansion reflects the company’s “commitment to providing our clients with disruptive platforms that shorten biosafety testing timelines, meet the growing global demand, and ensure the safety of the world’s medicines for patients.”
The new site’s updated testing capabilities include rapid methods package that will accelerate virus testing of bulk harvest material. The process will be the first to use the Blazar® CHO Animal Origin Free (AOF) panel, a targeted molecular method for detecting virus families. By combining this method with assays for mycoplasma, sterility, and retrovirus-like particle detection, test results can be obtained in just 14 days, compared to 35 days with traditional assay methods.
Merck KGaA, which operates as MilliporeSigma in the U.S. and Canada, has more than 27,000 employees and more than 55 total manufacturing and testing sites worldwide, with a portfolio of more than 300,000 products focused on scientific discovery, biomanufacturing and testing services.
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