MilliporeSigma Expands Celonic’s Upstream Capabilities with Mobius Single-use Bioreactors

On Sep 15, 2017

MilliporeSigma announced that Celonic AG, a Swiss contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), is upgrading its manufacturing facility with five of MilliporeSigma’s Mobius® single-use bioreactors.

Celonic, which produces biosimilars and also offers a cell line development platform, will add 50-, 200- and 2,000-liter bioreactors to its development and manufacturing facility in Basel, Switzerland. The upgrade will expand Celonic’s upstream capabilities, improving flexibility and scalability.

“Our extensive portfolio of single-use technologies allows us to support CDMO customers like Celonic as they adopt new technologies and expand their capabilities,” said Andrew Bulpin, Head of Process Solutions, MilliporeSigma. “Our new Mobius® single-use bioreactors will help Celonic streamline its processes and expand its capacity to better serve clients.”

“For our biotech customers, each step towards market authorization boosts the valuation of their assets, and that’s where Celonic’s breadth of services has been instrumental in creating tremendous value for our partners,” said Konstantin Matentzoglu, CEO, Celonic. “MilliporeSigma’s Mobius® single-use bioreactors offer a flexible, scalable system that addresses our needs and those of our clients. With the addition of the 2,000-liter bioreactor, we are moving a step closer to our objective of serving customers with commercial manufacturing needs.”

Single-use, disposable equipment and systems have increased in popularity in the biopharmaceutical industry, as they offer many advantages over conventional stainless steel systems, such as improved batch success rates, less cross-contamination risk, decreased water and waste water requirements, shortened project duration and reduced project costs.

At the same time, biopharmaceutical manufacturers are moving toward end-to-end solutions — from process development and scale-up through to manufacturing for pre-clinical, clinical and commercial supply — as they seek to cut costs while increasing quality and efficiency.

MilliporeSigma’s portfolio of 3- to 2,000- liter Mobius® single-use bioreactors delivers greater flexibility and continuity for scale-up, reducing the need for retraining operators. These are some of the multiple reasons that CDMOs such as Celonic have become early adopters of MilliporeSigma’s technologies.

MilliporeSigma is a premier supplier of process development and clinical-stage manufacturing solutions, materials and services needed for the production of biopharmaceutical drugs. The company is committed to delivering superior bioreactor technology to manufacturers, several of which are already collaborating with the company in that space in North America, Europe and Asia.