Merck and Stelis Biopharma will open their first joint process scale-up lab in Bengaluru, India. This facility, located at Stelis’ biopharma R&D facility in the Jigani industrial estate, will provide end-to-end bioprocessing development solutions.
“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, Ph.D., member of the Merck executive board and CEO, life science.
The process scale-up lab (for both small-scale and large-scale manufacturing) 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.
This news comes on the same day that Merck announced the opening of a new M Lab™ in Bangalore, India. This simulated GMP lab will allow customers to explore new R&D solutions to accelerate development of new therapies.
“Bangalore is the hub for India's rapidly growing biopharmaceutical manufacturing industry,” said Udit Batra. “With the expansion of our M Lab™ Collaboration Center in Bangalore, we are providing customers with hands-on experience and customized support required to optimize their manufacturing processes to quickly bring much-needed therapies to patients.”
The expanded facility (8500 sq. ft.) will also provide education on best practices to develop, optimize, and scaleup processes and ways to simplify global technology transfer will be available to customers.
This is the ninth M Lab that Merck has opened across the globe.
