Merck and Nano-Terra to co-develop products

Feb. 20, 2007 – The global pharmaceutical and chemical company Merck KGaA of Darmstadt, Germany (EMD in North America) announced today an alliance with Nano-Terra LLC, a nanotechnology co-development firm, to bring to market nanotechnology-based offerings.

Under the agreement, Nano-Terra and Merck will create new physical properties in specialty chemicals currently manufactured and sold by Merck. These new properties are made possible through nanoscale, molecular fabrication methods pioneered by Nano-Terra and its co-founder, Professor George M. Whitesides of Harvard University. The new solutions promise that Merck’s proprietary materials will work with significantly greater precision and control, and allow for new applications at lower prices than ever before possible.

The development work will be done primarily at Nano-Terra’s lab facilities in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with close cooperation of a Merck scientific team. Local support for the alliance will be provided by EMD Chemicals, Merck’s North American affiliate.

The two companies anticipate that first new solutions will be presented to Merck customers by early 2008. The partners will share commercialization rights on a global basis.


Merck plans to expand markets for its materials by developing nanotechnology.

“Merck is a world leader in research-driven pharmaceutical and chemical products, and the goal of this alliance is to work with them to develop innovative nanotechnology solutions that dramatically expand the addressable markets for their materials,” said Carmichael Roberts, Vice Chairman of Nano-Terra.

Dr. Thomas Geelhaar, Vice President Liquid Crystals R&D and Business Development Chemicals of Merck KGaA, added: “We have long been fascinated by the sciences originally developed by Professor George Whitesides of Harvard and, through his association with Nano-Terra, we look forward to being amongst the first to commercialize these innovations with them.”

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