August 31, 2007 — BILLERICA, MA — Millipore Corporation, a leading provider of products and services that improve productivity and results in biopharmaceutical manufacturing and in clinical, analytical, and research laboratories, today announced that Phase 1 of the plant modernization project is complete at its facility in Kankakee, IL. The Kankakee plant is dedicated to the manufacture of certain key products including Probumin(R) brand Bovine Serum Albumin and other products derived from bovine serum or plasma.
Phase 1 modernization included installation of new, state-of-the-art-control and processing equipment. These changes will result in enhanced control over product quality and existing proprietary and fully validated processes. Critical equipment was substituted “like for like” with modern equivalents of exactly the same configuration and processing characteristics, so customers will see no change in the reactivity or other characteristics of the affected products. This initiative does not impact the EX-CYTE(R) focus factory also located at the Kankakee facility.
Phase 2 modernization will begin immediately and will include enhancements to plant capacity and to filling and packaging capabilities.
“This modernization to our Kankakee processing plant demonstrates Millipore’s commitment to delivering the highest product quality through enhanced process control to meet the ongoing needs of our life science customers,” says Andrew Bulpin, PhD, vice president of Millipore’s Bio-Products and Technologies Business Unit. “Our many customers expect Millipore to maintain leadership in the area.”
Alan Doty, product manager for Probumin and EX-CYTE, adds, “By completing this modernization phase, Millipore has confirmed Probumin as the premier BSA brand for life science markets. Consolidating manufacturing into one modern facility means that our customers can continue to enjoy the high purity and excellent lot to lot consistency they demand from Probumin and all our bovine derived products.”
Millipore’s Bio-Products and Technologies Business Unit is a valued partner to leading life science companies worldwide. In addition to Probumin BSA, Millipore offers a wide range of products for media, diagnostic, cell culture, and microbial culture applications.
About Millipore
Millipore is a leading provider of products and services that improve productivity and results in biopharmaceutical manufacturing and in clinical, analytical and research laboratories. The company is organized in two operating divisions. Its Bioprocess Division helps pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to optimize their manufacturing productivity, ensure the quality of drugs, and scale up the production of difficult-to-manufacture biologics. Its Bioscience Division helps optimize laboratory productivity and workflows by providing reagents, kits and other enabling technologies and products for life science research and development. Millipore has a deep understanding of its customers’ research and manufacturing process needs, and offers reliable and innovative tools, technologies and services. The Company is part of the S&P 500 Index and employs approximately 6,000 employees worldwide. For additional information on Millipore Corporation, please visit its website at www.millipore.com.