Sigma-Aldrich Corporation and Corning Life Sciences have entered into an arrangement designed to offer a more streamlined distribution channel for US customers purchasing Corning's reusable and disposable glassware and plasticware for the life sciences industry.

Using Corning's own product numbering system, US customers will be able to place orders through Sigma-Aldrich for virtually all of Corning Life Sciences' plastic laboratory products including the Corning, Costar, CellBind, and CellStack brands, plus the Corning PYREX glassware line. Orders can be placed seamlessly through Sigma-Aldrich's advanced e- commerce options or through standard procurement processes.

"We recognize that customers place high value on consolidation and ease of ordering," commented Nancy Weber, Sigma-Aldrich Marketing Manager. "At the same time, the realities of global commerce necessitate removing inefficiencies from the ordinary distribution process. We believe, with this arrangement, customers purchasing Corning products will receive the outstanding customer service and global delivery efficiency that our specialty chemical customers receive, while removing some of the inefficiencies associated with more traditional distribution outlets."

Both respected leaders in Life Science manufacturing, Corning's high performance lines of plastic culture-ware and multiwell plates for cell culture and drug discovery nicely complement Sigma-Aldrich's extensive selection of reagents and chemicals for these same applications. Furthermore, both companies have expertise in manufacturing laboratory glassware, with Aldrich's specialty and custom glassware and Corning's trusted PYREX brand used daily in millions of laboratories worldwide.