Millipore Corporation (NYSE:MIL) today announced it has entered into a worldwide, non-exclusive license agreement with Astellas Pharma, Inc. (“Astellas”) to use Millipore’s UCOE™ (Ubiquitous Chromatin Opening Element) technology in its research programs. The license will enable Astellas to more efficiently produce its drug targets, such as antibodies in mammalian cells, by generating higher protein yields. Financial terms were not disclosed.

“We value Astellas’ commitment to the UCOE technology,” said Andrew Bulpin, Vice President of Millipore’s Upstream Bioprocessing Business Unit. “This license is another example of how we can help pharmaceutical and biotech companies efficiently develop biologic drugs.”

The process of manufacturing biologic drugs such as monoclonal antibodies and other recombinant proteins often begins with growing mammalian cells in a bioreactor. These cells act as “factories” and produce the proteins that form the basis of biologic drugs. Millipore’s UCOE technology helps biopharmaceutical companies better identify which cells will be the most effective in producing proteins during large-scale manufacturing. By more efficiently isolating these stable and highly productive cell lines, biopharmaceutical manufacturers can improve the yield and consistency of their manufacturing processes. The cost of manufacturing recombinant protein-based drugs makes quick identification of cell lines a critical factor in improving productivity.

Millipore’s UCOE technology, which was originally licensed from the laboratory of Dr. Michael Antoniou at King’s College, London, can be used for the fast and simple generation of proteins at small scale for drug discovery and research, as well as for identifying stable and highly productive cell lines suitable for larger scale manufacturing. Other applications of the UCOE technology include gene therapy, transgenics, and the generation of cell lines for drug screening. UCOE technology has been licensed by over 50 pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies in North America, Europe and Japan, including Bayer, Medarex, Novartis and Maxygen.

For further details on the UCOE technology or on its licensing, please contact Millipore at: 1-800-MILLIPORE (1-800-645-5476) or visit www.millipore.com/ucoe. On December 5th 2007, Millipore was awarded the 2007 Frost & Sullivan Technology Innovation of the Year Award in the U.S. Drug Discovery Technologies market for the UCOE(TM) technology. Millipore is also a leading provider of cell culture supplements that are used in the production of numerous FDA-approved biologic drugs that are marketed worldwide.