Merck Millipore

Merck Millipore was the brand used for Merck's global life science business until 2015 when the company re-branded. It was originally formed when Merck acquired the Millipore Corporation in 2010. Merck is a supplier to the life science industry. The Millipore Corporation was founded in 1954, and listed among the S&P 500 since the early 1990s, as an international biosciences company, known widely for its micrometer pore-size filters and tests. In 2015, Merck acquired Sigma-Aldrich and merged it with Merck Millipore. In the United States and Canada, the life science business is now known as MilliporeSigma.[1]

MilliporeSigma
Private formed by Merck KGaA
IndustryLife sciences
Biotech
FoundedMerck founded 1668
Headquarters
Burlington, Massachusetts
,
United States
Key people
Christos Ross, Interim Sector Head of Life Science
ProductsFiltration
Pharmaceutical equipment and consumables
Revenue$6 billionUSD
Number of employees
20,000
ParentMerck KGaA 
Websitehttp://www.sigmaaldrich.com/

History

Formation and naming

In the early 1950s, Lovell Corporation won a contract from the U.S. Army Chemical Engineers to develop and manufacture membrane filtering devices and systems used to separate the molecular components of fluid samples. When the membranes were declassified in 1953 and offered for commercial use, Jack Bush, a Lovell employee, bought the company’s right to the technology for $200,000 and established the Millipore Filter Company. Bush coined the word millipore to use in the company's name to refer to large number of small openings in the microporous membrane that the company produced.[2] At this point, however, "millipore" has become an actual word in general use apart from this company's use of it, referring to any of several filters, made from cellulose acetate membranes, capable of removing very small particles.[3] Later the company changed its name to Millipore Corporation to reflect its growing range of products. In 2010, Merck KGaA the world's oldest chemical and pharmaceutical company- acquired Millipore Corporation to form EMD Millipore.

Filters

By 1959, Millipore made porous membrane filters of cellulose esters or other materials which resembled paper in sheet form, and were brittle when dry but friable when wet.[4] Filters consisted of nitrocellulose or polycarbonate membrane nucleopore filters ranging from pore size of 0.2 μm (micrometer) to 20 µm. Modern filter are Polyvinylidene fluoride and/or Polypropylene based.

Growth

By 1970, Millipore had established subsidiaries in seven countries. The company opened manufacturing plants in Jaffrey, New Hampshire; Molsheim, France; Cork, Ireland; and several other locations. Millipore’s 2006 acquisition of Serologicals Corporation improved the company's position in high-growth markets such as drug discovery products and services, antibodies, cell biology reagents, and stem cell research. As of the late 2000s, Millipore was the only company providing both upstream cell culture and downstream separations offerings for biopharmaceutical production.

Milestones

Here are some of the key milestones representative of Millipore’s changes and growth over the past five decades.

1950s
  • 1954: Jack Bush purchases the rights to a new membrane-production process developed by Lovell Chemical Company.
  • 1954: Millipore Filter Corporation is officially incorporated.
  • 1954: Jack Bush becomes president (and later chairman) of Millipore. Jack is the son of Vannevar Bush, science advisor to President Roosevelt in World War II.
  • 1955: Millipore receives its first patent—for microporous nylon film invented by Stanley Lovell and Jack Bush.

1960s
  • 1964: Millipore establishes its first subsidiary, in France.
  • 1967: Millipore introduces the Super-Q water purification system.
  • 1967: Millipore establishes a subsidiary in Germany.
  • 1968: Millipore establishes a subsidiary in Japan.
  • 1968: Millipore introduces its Pellicon cassette product, for purifying biotherapeutics.

1970s

1980s
  • 1980: Millipore introduces its low-protein binding Durapore Polyvinylidene fluoride membrane.
  • 1987: Millipore is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
  • 1987: Millipore reaches the $500 million revenue milestone.
  • 1988: Millipore opens a membrane manufacturing plant in Cork, Ireland.[5]

1990s
  • 1994: Millipore divests its Waters Chromatography Division and focuses on its membrane business.
  • 1996: Millipore acquires the Amicon separation sciences business from W. R. Grace and Company.
  • 1997: Millipore acquires Tylan General, expanding its gas purification offerings for the microelectronics industry.
  • 1999: Millipore acquires Bioprocessing Limited, a developer and manufacturer of chromatography.

2000s
  • 2001: Millipore spins off its Microelectronics Division (30% of its top line), that becomes Mykrolis. It will merge with Entegris in 2005.
  • 2002: Millipore opens its Biopharmaceutical Technology Center in Billerica, Massachusetts – an innovative, customer-focused facility.
  • 2005: Millipore acquires MicroSafe, a European contract testing laboratory.
  • 2005: Millipore acquires NovAseptic, a worldwide supplier of aseptically designed components for biotech and pharmaceutical production.
  • 2005: Millipore forms an alliance with Gen-Probe to develop, manufacture and commercialize products for rapid microbiological and virus monitoring.
  • 2006: Millipore acquires Newport Bio Systems, a maker of process containers and systems used in biopharmaceutical production.
  • 2006: Millipore acquires Serologicals Corporation (which includes the companies Chemicon, Upstate, Linco, and Celliance), expanding its drug discovery and development footprint.
  • 2006: Millipore opens a new Research and Development Center in Bedford, Massachusetts.
  • 2007: Millipore launches its new brand, signifying the company’s transformation as a Life Science leader.
  • 2008: Millipore unveils a major expansion of its Drug Discovery and Development facility in St. Charles, Missouri.
  • 2008: Millipore opens a new membrane casting manufacturing facility in Carrigtwohill, County Cork, Ireland.
  • 2009: Millipore acquires Guava Technologies, a leading provider of bench top cell analysis systems.
  • 2009: Millipore opens state-of-the-art Biomanufacturing Sciences and Training Center in Singapore.
  • 2009: Millipore acquires BioAnaLab, a European-based firm specializing in the analysis of biologic drugs and vaccines.
  • 2010: Merck acquires Millipore. In future, Millipore will be part of the EMD Group.
  • 2015: On November 18, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, completed a $17 billion acquisition of Sigma-Aldrich. This transaction combines EMD Millipore and Sigma-Aldrich to create a global leader in the life science industry: MilliporeSigma.

Financial history

Millipore Corporation had been publicly traded on the OTC, or NASDAQ, exchange where it had paid a cash dividend to shareholders every year since 1966.[6] In 1987 Millipore Corporation moved from the NASDAQ exchange to the New York Stock Exchange, where it traded under the ticker symbol MIL.[6] Millipore Corporation was on the S&P 500 list of the biggest publicly traded companies in the United States[6] until it was acquired by Merck kGaA in 2010. The deal was valued at approximately EUR 5.3 billion (US$7.2 billion).[7] Merck KGaA is not associated with Merck & Co., although the two companies stem from the same parent company.

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References
  1. Batra, Udit (2014). "Customer Letter" (Press release). EMD Millipore. Retrieved 2016-07-13.
  2. "History of Millipore Corporation – FundingUniverse". www.fundinguniverse.com.
  4. Bassett (1959). "Peripheral Nerve and Spinal Cord Regeneration: Factors Leading to Success of a Tubulation Technique Employing Millipore". Experimental Neurology 1: 386–406
  5. [[https%3A%2F%2Fwww.merckmillipore.com%2FINTERSHOP%2Fweb%2FWFS%2FMerck-MY-Site%2Fen_US%2F-%2FUSD%2FShowDocument-Pronet%3Fid%3D201306.10698&usg=AOvVaw0aIRHufbFzyeoOw0Tx9u6d Microfiltration Membranes for Filtration and Venting Applications]]
  6. Standard & Poor's Stock Guide, various issues
  7. "STOCKS NEWS US-Merck KGaA to buy Millipore for $6 bln". FinanzNachrichten.de.

Sources

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