Merck Opens China's First BioReliance® End-to-End Biodevelopment Center in Shanghai

- Company's first end-to-end center outside of Europe

- Accelerates clinical development from molecule to commercial production

DARMSTADT, Germany, Sept. 22, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Merck, a leading science and technology company, today announced the opening of its first BioReliance^® End-to-End Biodevelopment Center in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region. Located in Shanghai, China, the center will provide a full range of process development capabilities and services, including cell line development, upstream and downstream process development and non-GMP clinical production.

"Our new BioReliance^® End-to-End Biodevelopment Center will host small-scale drug manufacturers working on early-phase clinical trials," said Udit Batra, Member of the Merck Executive Board and CEO, Life Science. "Merck has 30 years of process development experience and a track record of delivering robust clinical production process and clinical material within nine to 12 months. We look forward to advancing scientific discovery and innovation in China and beyond."

The Shanghai center is designed to meet the specific needs of customers in the APAC region. Staffed by local process scientists and engineers, the center will provide an integrated suite of services for biopharmaceutical companies in China and across APAC to accelerate clinical drug development from molecule to commercial production. Customers will get full support, not only with process development or production, but also with regulatory, quality and training.

"Merck is a leading solutions provider," said Dr. Chengbin Wu, founder and CEO, EpimAb Biotherapeutics, a privately held start-up company dedicated to generating novel bi-specific antibody therapeutics in oncology and immune-oncology based on its proprietary FIT-Ig (Fabs-In-Tandem) platform. "The opening of this center will provide biopharma and emerging biotech companies like us access to the latest technologies and experienced scientists, helping us in accelerating our drug development and providing more affordable medicine to patients."

Merck's end-to-end global team has a track record of executing nearly 240 large molecule projects, ranging in scale from three- to 2,000-liters. Early-stage companies with limited resources and infrastructure can benefit from Merck's expertise and experience in process development and GMP clinical manufacturing to advance their early clinical development programs. Additionally, Merck's end-to-end approach can facilitate and accelerate scaling, process and analytical method validation and technical transfer of an entire process to a customer-designated location.