Merck has opened its first joint Process Scale-Up Lab in Bengaluru, India to provide services from process development to scale-up manufacturing for preclinical, clinical and commercial supply. This lab is part of a collaboration with Stelis Biopharma, and is located at the Stelis Biopharma R&D Facility in the Jigani industrial estate. 

The lab is a center of excellence for process scale-up and manufacturing services. The collaboration combines Stelis’ capabilities in high-yield bioprocess development from cell line to commercial manufacturing scale with Merck’s technological expertise in bioprocessing. 

The Process Scale-Up Lab and cGMP manufacturing facility will house Merck’s portfolio of Mobiusbioprocessing equipment and single-use manufacturing components. Merck will provide process know-how and application knowledge to help establish the single-use platform technologies at Stelis.

“Both Merck and Stelis bring technological expertise and an extensive bioprocess development and manufacturing portfolio that will help customers accelerate development of biopharmaceuticals for clinical trials and manufacturing with greater reliability and cost effectiveness,” said Udit Batra, chief executive officer, Life Science, Merck.

“In the biopharma space, where the process is the product, our Process Scale-Up Lab fulfils a critical need by offering clients a reliable process bridge between R&D and commercial scales,” said Joe Thomas, chief executive officer of Stelis Biopharma. “The collaboration with Merck completes the value proposition for CDMO customers by providing an end-to-end solution from process development and scale-up through to manufacturing for pre-clinical, clinical and commercial supply.”