Merck Provides Upgraded Manufacturing Capabilities to BioInvent with Single-use Mobius® Bioreactors

- Sizes range from 3-liter bench-top to 1000-liter manufacturing scale

- Fully scalable system streamlines drug development and production

DARMSTADT, Germany, April 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Merck, a leading science and technology company, today announced that BioInvent International AB, a Swedish company which develops novel immuno-regulatory antibodies to treat cancer, is upgrading and expanding its drug manufacturing facility with a full line of Merck's Mobius^® single-use bioreactors.

BioInvent will add 3-, 50-, 200- and 1000-liter bioreactors to its upstream facility in Lund, Sweden, expanding capacity and improving flexibility and scalability.  Merck's portfolio of 3- to 2000- liter single-use Mobius^® bioreactors offers industry-leading benefits that deliver greater flexibility and continuity for scale-up, reducing the need for re-training of operators during scale-up processes.

"Our complete portfolio of single-use technologies addresses the needs of both emerging biopharmaceutical companies and established drug developers like BioInvent as they seek to increase productivity," said Udit Batra, Member of the Merck Executive Board and CEO of the life science business sector of Merck.  "We are providing a full range of bioreactors, services and support which will help BioInvent accelerate innovative therapeutics through the development pipeline."

The upgrade of the BioInvent facility to include a 1000-liter single-use bioreactor will allow the company to meet production requirements for both its own novel antibody development projects and also those of customers they serve around the world. 

"BioInvent has been discovering and manufacturing antibodies for more than 30 years, and when we decided to upgrade our single-use production facility, we established very demanding requirements," said Kristoffer Rudenholm Hansson, vice president of Technical Operations at BioInvent. "Merck's single-use bioreactors most effectively addressed our current and future needs with a fully scalable system." 

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About Merck
Merck is a leading science and technology company in healthcare, life science and performance materials. Around 50,000 employees work to further develop technologies that improve and enhance life – from biopharmaceutical therapies to treat cancer or multiple sclerosis, cutting-edge systems for scientific research and production, to liquid crystals for smartphones and LCD televisions. In 2016, Merck generated sales of €15.0 billion in 66 countries.
Founded in 1668, Merck is the world's oldest pharmaceutical and chemical company. The founding family remains the majority owner of the publicly listed corporate group. Merck holds the global rights to the Merck name and brand. The only exceptions are the United States and Canada, where the company operates as EMD Serono, MilliporeSigma and EMD Performance Materials.

About BioInvent
BioInvent International AB (OMXS: BINV) is focused on the discovery and development of novel and first-in-class immuno-regulatory antibodies to treat cancer. The company's clinical programmes are BI-1206, currently in a Phase I/II for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and chronic lymphatic leukaemia and TB-403, in cooperation with Oncurious, currently in Phase I/II for medulloblastoma. BioInvent has an exciting pre-clinical portfolio based on novel immuno-modulatory antibodies that target regulatory T cells (T-regs) and tumour-associated myeloid cells. In December 2016, the company signed a strategic research collaboration with Pfizer Inc. BioInvent also works with leading academic institutions including the University of Southampton, Cancer Research UK, and Penn Medicine. BioInvent generates revenues from global partnerships, including Bayer Pharma, Daiichi Sankyo, and Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma and from its manufacturing facility for the production of antibodies for research through to late-stage clinical trials.

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SOURCE Merck