Creation of Roka Bioscience will accelerate development of new assays
and portable instruments
BILLERICA, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep. 14, 2009--
Millipore Corporation (NYSE:MIL), a leading provider of technologies,
tools and services for the global life science industry, today announced
that it will collaborate with Roka Bioscience, Inc. to develop molecular
assays and portable instruments for biopharmaceutical production. As
recently announced by Gen-Probe Incorporated (NASDAQ: GPRO), Roka
Bioscience is a new, independent company created through the spin-off of
Gen-Probe’s industrial assets.
Millipore and Gen-Probe formed an exclusive partnership in 2005 to
develop faster, more reliable and sensitive tests for contaminants
commonly found in pharmaceutical and biotechnology manufacturing
processes. Last year, they introduced the MilliPROBE® system,
which is the first solution of its kind and combines Millipore’s
leading, industry-accepted sample prep methodologies with Gen-Probe’s
advanced, proven nucleic acid technologies to deliver both speed and
sensitivity in one microbial screening tool. The companies currently
have one assay on the market for Pseudomonas aeruginosa and are
developing a second assay for Mycoplasma that remains on track to be
introduced early next year.
The revolutionary MilliPROBE system uses Real-Time
Transcription-Mediated Amplification (TMA) technology to detect targeted
microbial contamination within four hours compared to days or weeks
required to generate results using traditional culture-based technology.
Faster detection allows biopharmaceutical manufacturers to take
corrective action earlier in their production process, which limits the
impact of a contamination event, reduces downstream processing risks,
optimizes product yields, and improves final product quality. These
improvements enable operational efficiency and lower manufacturing cost
for biopharmaceutical manufacturers.
“We believe that the creation of Roka Bioscience will help us to
accelerate the development of further MilliPROBE assays due to the focus
and investment they will bring to the partnership,” said Jean-Paul
Mangeolle, President of Millipore’s Bioprocess Division. “Roka
Bioscience’s investment into a fully integrated, portable testing
instrument will also bring us closer to our vision of providing rapid
tests that can be conducted right on the manufacturing floor. We remain
very excited about the market potential for the MilliPROBE platform and
about the major milestone that the launch of our Mycoplasma assay will
represent for our partnership.”
About Millipore
Millipore (NYSE: MIL) is a life science leader providing cutting-edge
technologies, tools, and services for bioscience research and
biopharmaceutical manufacturing. As a strategic partner, we collaborate
with customers to confront the world's challenging human health issues.
From research to development to production, our scientific expertise and
innovative solutions help customers tackle their most complex problems
and achieve their goals. Millipore Corporation is an S&P 500 company
with more than 5,900 employees in 30 countries worldwide.
Advancing Life Science Together™
Research. Development. Production.
Forward Looking Statements:
The matters discussed herein, as well as in future oral and written
statements by management of Millipore Corporation that are
forward-looking statements, are based on current management expectations
that involve substantial risks and uncertainties which could cause
actual results to differ materially from the results expressed in, or
implied by, these forward-looking statements.
Potential risks and uncertainties that could affect Millipore's
future operating results include, without limitation, failure to achieve
design wins into our pharmaceutical and biotechnology customers’
manufacturing design phase for a particular drug; delay, suspension or
termination of a customer’s volume production; lack of availability of
raw materials or component products on a timely basis; regulatory delay
in the approval of customers’ therapeutics; limitations on cash flow
available for operations and investment due to increased debt service
obligations; the inability to establish and maintain necessary product
and process quality levels; reduced demand for animal-derived cell
culture products; the inability to realize the expected benefits of
development, marketing, licensing and other alliances; competitive
factors such as new membrane or chromatography technology; the inability
to achieve anticipated cost benefits of our supply chain initiatives;
risks relating to our concentration of principal manufacturing
operations; the inability to utilize technology in current or planned
products due to overriding rights by third parties; potential
environmental liabilities; conditions in the economy in general and in
the bioscience and bioprocess markets in particular; foreign exchange
fluctuations; reduced private and government research funding; exposure
to product liability claims; and difficulties inherent in transferring
or outsourcing of manufacturing operations. Please refer to our
filings with the SEC, including our most recent Annual Report on Form
10-K, for more information on these and other risks that could cause
actual results to differ.
Source: Millipore Corporation
Millipore Corporation
Joshua Young
978-715-1527
800-225-3384
Director,
Investor Relations
joshua_young@millipore.com
or
Karen
Hall
978-715–1567
Director, Corporate Communications
karen_hall@millipore.com