MilliporeSigma announced an expansion of its distribution alliance with Public Health England (PHE) to include the European Bank for induced pluripotent stem cells (EBiSC)—a comprehensive iPS cell bank of more than 300 quality-controlled, disease-relevant, patient-derived human iPSC lines.
MilliporeSigma provides a solution for the iPSC workflow, including reprogramming kits, iPSC culture media and stem cell antibodies and characterization kits. The addition of the EBiSC portfolio strengthens MilliporeSigma’s existing distribution relationship with PHE as a distributor of its European Collection of Authenticated Cell Cultures portfolio.
“This partnership will give customers greater access to a comprehensive suite of human iPSCs for disease modeling,” said Udit Batra, CEO, MilliporeSigma. “This is a great addition to our authenticated cell line portfolio and strengthens our offering across the iPSC workflow.”
Under the terms of the agreement, MilliporeSigma will employ its sales, marketing and e-commerce expertise to distribute the EBiSC Human iPS Cell Bank. The distribution agreement includes all geographies except Japan. Financial details were not disclosed.
Following the acquisition of Sigma-Aldrich by Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany in 2015, the global distribution agreement became an important part of the company’s life science business, driving growth and offering premier brand tools for disease modeling and drug screening.
EBiSC is a European public-private partnership project designed to address the increasing demand by stem cell researchers for quality-controlled, disease-relevant, research-grade iPSC lines, data and cell services. Its goal is to establish a centralized European cell bank providing researchers across academia and industry with access to scalable, cost-efficient and consistent high-quality tools for development of new medicines.
The life science business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, which operates as MilliporeSigma in the U.S. and Canada, has 19,000 employees and 65 manufacturing sites worldwide, with a portfolio of more than 300,000 products enabling scientific discovery. The company holds the global rights to the name and the trademark “Merck” internationally except for the United States and Canada, where the company operates as EMD Serono, MilliporeSigma and EMD Performance Materials.
(Source: MilliporeSigma)
