EMD Millipore, Turgut Ilaç in Strategic Biosimilars Alliance

EMD Millipore, the Life Science business of Merck KGaA, has entered into a strategic alliance with Turgut Ilaç, a biosimilars company based in Turkey, to provide Provantage services for development and manufacturing of biologics. Financial terms were not disclosed.    
 
EMD Millipore’s Provantage End-to-End solution is a suite of products and services aimed at accelerating development of molecules into the clinic and commercialization. Under the multi-year agreement, EMD Millipore will provide process development, equipment for a pilot facility, cGMP manufacturing, facility design and ultimately, technology transfer of the manufacturing process to Turgut’s facility for commercial production.
 
Initially the agreement will focus Turgut’s biosimilar products for non-small cell lung cancer and rheumatoid arthritis, the first of Turgut’s molecules that will be supported by EMD Millipore under the alliance.  
 
“Biosimilars represent an important new therapeutic option and many biopharmaceutical companies around the world are investing in their development and manufacture,” said Udit Batra, president and chief executive officer, EMD Millipore. “We are excited to work with Turgut Ilaç, leveraging our end-to-end offering to help create and optimize processes and manufacturing facilities for these molecules. We look forward to helping them extend their legacy into the field of biologics and enable them to continue providing important benefits to patients in Turkey and surrounding markets.”
 
“Turgut Ilaç was one of the founding companies of the pharmaceutical sector in Turkey and one of the first to develop generics,” said Kaya Turgut, founder and chairman of the board, Turgut Ilaç. “Our business model has now evolved to focus on development and manufacture of industry leading biosimilars. With this relationship, we gain access to expertise and capabilities that will not only allow us to establish robust processes, but make the transfer of those processes from pilot scale to commercial facilities much easier and faster.”