Merck Millipore adopts Gyros’ early-stage assay tech

17-Nov-2010 - Last updated on 22-Nov-2010 at 12:21 GMT

Merck Millipore says Gyros’ Gyrolab xP workstation will be a competitive advantage for its contract immunogenicity, pharmacokinetics and cGMP testing offering for the biopharmaceutical industry.

Merck Millipore, formed in July of this year by Merck KGaA’s $7bn (€5.2bn) acquisition of Millipore, said its biopharma team will use the microfluidic technology to miniaturise assays for its contract development clients.

The investment fits with Merck Millipore’s efforts to focus on “high-growth, high-margin” bio-research and bio-production markets rather than battling for business in new pharmaceutical markets.

“Incorporating Gyrolab technology into our offering will give us a competitive advantage for servicing the fields of pharmacokinetics, anti-drug antibody, and host-cell protein (HCP) testing,” said Ron Bowsher, Chief Scientist for BioPharma Services at Merck Millipore.

"In our evaluation of the Gyrolab xP workstation, we were particularly impressed with the system’s high level of accuracy; rapid method development and validation; and delivery of robust assays - even in 50 per cent matrix," he added.

News of the deal follows a number of similar agreements with US-based contract research organisations (CRO), beginning in March with CEDRA’s acquisition of a Gyrolab xP system for its bioanalytical research laboratory in Austin, Texas.

More recently Radix BioSolutions’ purchased one of the workstations to expand its immunogenicity contract services offering.

Commenting on the deal with Merck Millipore, Erik Walldén, CEO at Gyros, said: “We see Merck Millipore’s investment as strong confirmation that our offering delivers what is important to our customers.

“From a company perspective, this signals a growing acceptance of our technology, and a major step in our expansion, within the US market.”