Merck, a leading science and technology company, opened its M Lab™ Collaboration Center in Shanghai, the company’s largest of nine centers worldwide.

“With the booming pharmaceutical industry in Asia and greater emphasis on novel drug therapies, we see an increase in R&D on leading-edge treatments including cell and gene therapies in China,” said Udit Batra, member of the Merck Executive Board and CEO, Life Science. “Our M Lab™ Collaboration Center offers customizable solutions and services that help bio pharmaceutical and biologics companies improve their processes from drug discovery, development to manufacturing — saving costs and increasing speed to market.”

With a total lab size of approximately 10,000m2, Merck’s newest M Lab™ Collaboration Center is located in Pudong, at the heart of the biomedical sciences and research community in Shanghai.

The new M Lab™ Collaboration Center in Shanghai offers customizable solutions tailored for China’s Life Science community to help advance drug development. It includes Pilot Scale and Process Development support labs that offer non-GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) lab space where pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical manufacturers can explore ideas, learn innovative techniques and work side-by-side with the company’s scientists and engineers to solve critical process development and production challenges. Customers can participate in product demonstrations, hands-on training, formal bioprocessing educational courses and experiments, as well as apply best practices and new approaches to develop, optimize and scale-up processes and simplify global technology transfer.

Customers will also be able to tap into the following Merck offerings:

Lab Management Software: This digital platform helps scientists improve efficiency and processes by automating workflows and connecting lab instruments via the cloud. The software centralizes research information, allowing researchers to move away from transferring and documenting data by hand, increasing productivity and helping them to avoid costly errors.
Customized Cell Culture Media facility: This facility develops cell culture media, which are used in the production of biopharmaceuticals and will be used for non-GMP pilot production.
Solid Dose Formulation facility: This facility helps ensure drugs in tablet/capsule/powder form contain high quality excipients and active pharmaceutical ingredients. This facility will support customers in China and around the world.
Additionally, the center will host a new BioReliance® End-to-End Solutions GMP manufacturing facility offering contract development manufacturing organization services to customers in China and Asia-Pacific.

As a leading innovator in the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industry, Merck is committed to playing an active role in China’s transformation into an innovation- driven economy. Through this new center, Merck will collaborate with local and regional customers to increase drug quality and safety and provide training and knowledge transfer.