Sartorius Stedim Biotech (SSB) and G-Con have agreed to a global
collaboration to offer highly advanced and flexible production platforms for
the biopharmaceutical manufacturing industry. The new product line will
leverage G-Con Manufacturing's novel modular, mobile clean-room "pods" and
Sartorius Stedim Biotech's well-established broad single-use and reusable
product portfolio to create a totally integrated production process platform.
SSB has incorporated its products into unit operations for media/buffer
preparation, seed fermentation, cell cultivation and harvesting,
ultra-diafiltration, membrane chromatography and viral clearance for
biopharmaceutical development and manufacturing. Combining SSB's technology
with G-Con's modular, scalable and flexible pod platform will provide the
biopharmaceutical manufacturing industry with an unparalleled set of
cost-effective, "plug and play" tools for next-generation manufacturing
facilities.
Maik Jornitz, SSB's Senior Vice President of
Marketing for Bioprocess Solutions, stated, "The combined product portfolio
will fundamentally change the way biopharmaceutical manufacturing processes
will be designed and configured. Our Integrated Solutions unit will implement
G-Con's platform of modular clean-room systems into their designs. In addition,
our teams will benefit from G-Con's engineering and design expertise. Our
vision is to create standardized unit operations, implemented into the
self-contained G-Con modules. These modules can be used as individual process
units or joined to an entire process."
Barry Holtz, President of G-Con
Manufacturing, stated, "Our common goal is to combine our complementary
expertise to develop revolutionary solutions for the next generation of
flexible, single-use manufacturing concepts. We couldn't be more excited about
having an agreement with a leader in single-use products like Sartorius Stedim
Biotech."
Effective immediately, G-Con's modular
containment units are available through SSB's Integrated Solutions unit and
will be rolled out globally in early 2012.
Jornitz commented: "We do not want to delay
the availability of the G-Con units and therefore decided to have our
Integrated Solutions unit utilize the containment systems and G-Con's
engineering capabilities now. The global launch through our sales organizations
will follow."
This press
release contains statements about the future development of the Sartorius
Stedim Biotech Group. We cannot guarantee that the content of these statements
will actually apply because these statements are based upon assumptions and
estimates that harbor certain risks and uncertainties.
Sartorius Stedim Biotech
Sartorius Stedim Biotech is a leading
provider of cutting-edge equipment and services for the development, quality
assurance and production processes of the biopharmaceutical industry. Its
integrated solutions covering fermentation, filtration, purification, fluid
management and lab technologies are supporting the biopharmaceutical industry
around the world to develop and produce drugs safely, timely and economically.
Sartorius Stedim Biotech focuses on single-use technologies and value-added
services to meet the rapidly changing technology requirements of the industry
it serves. Strongly rooted in the scientific community and closely allied with
customers and technology partners, the company is dedicated to its philosophy of
"turning science into solutions".
Headquartered in Aubagne,
France , Sartorius Stedim
Biotech is listed on the Eurolist of Euronext Paris. With its own manufacturing
and R&D sites in Europe, North America and Asia and
a global network of sales companies, Sartorius Stedim Biotech enjoys a
worldwide presence. Its key manufacturing and R&D site is in Germany.
The company employs nearly 2,600 people, and in 2010 earned sales revenue of
432.9 million euros.
G-Con Manufacturing, LLC
G-Con Manufacturing ("G-Con") was founded on the premise that existing
equipment, modules and methodologies for constructing biomanufacturing suites
are not affordable, flexible, or robust enough to meet the rapidly changing
needs of the market. As biotherapeutic developers, G-Con's founders experienced
the high cost to build and maintain traditional facilities in addition to their
inherent lack of flexibility. Leveraging that experience, the founders created
the G-Con pod solution. G-Con enables developing technologies by significantly
lowering the expense and complexity of manufacturing biological materials to
GMP standards. The G-Con pod solution is completely self-contained and simple
to maintain, reducing the need for sophisticated and expansive purpose-built
facilities and specialized maintenance. Moreover, G-Con pods can be custom
built in a fraction of the time required for a traditional facility and at
significantly less cost. Headquartered in College Station,
Texas, G-Con maintains an integrated product
team of engineers with bioprocess development, mechanical, electrical, and
heating, ventilation and air conditioning experience combined with a proven
regulatory and quality management system that is uniquely qualified to deliver
on every size of GMP project. For more information, please visit the company's
website at
www.gconbio.com.