Millipore, a provider of innovative solutions in biopharmaceutical processing, has now extended its range of offerings to include products required at the upstream processing stage. So far the company was known for its filtration and purification solutions in downstream processing.

The company's present move is part of its strategic initiatives to offer the industry a complete range of solutions for advancing life science research, development and production of biologics.

At the upstream stage, Millipore's introductions include a variety of growth supplements and nutrients essential for enhancing the quality and quantity of yields in cell culture applications.

"With total control of the entire sourcing, manufacturing and quality control process, the new products (Ex-cyte, Lucratone, Incelligent, Probumin BSA) for upstream processing stage offer the advantages of high quality, purity and batch-to-batch consistency. The biotech industry, R&D institutes and manufacturers of veterinary vaccines and diagnostic kits have received the new products enthusiastically," said Dr P Pattnaik, group leader, process development sciences group, Millipore India.

Among the new basket of products, Ex-cyte supplement is an ideal enhancer for reduced serum cell culture, as it supplies critical growth factors and eliminates the need for full serum supplementation. When used in conjunction with Millipore's other critical media supplements, Ex-cyte supplement can significantly improve the cell culture manufacturing process.

Millipore is also the leading provider of recombinant human insulin, Incelligent, for cell culture applications to the biotech industry. The company's insulin products are used in more cell culture applications and in large scale industrial processes than any other insulin products available. A number of key pharmaceuticals on the market today use Incelligent insulin in their manufacturing processes.

Millipore, with over five decades of protein fractionation expertise, is the world's largest and most experienced manufacturer of high quality albumins - Probumin for the diagnostic and cell culture market.

Albumin is one of the most extensively utilised proteins in the medical industry. Its availability, inherent stability and ligand binding ability, makes albumin an essential component in the production of many therapeutic drugs and diagnostic tests.

The company's other new launches in the chromatography domain include columns. Vantage-L laboratory columns provide advanced design for the increased demands of biochromatography.

In the area of tangential flow filtration the company has introduced Cogent µScale TFF system, an easy to use, semi-automated bench top TFF system for both micro scale process development and everyday low volume ultrafiltration / diafiltration work.