Company Announcements

In June, Sartorius Stedim Biotech (SSB) signed a long-term cooperation agreement with Siemens. SSB will preferably use Siemens automation technologies. The automation technologies will include Siemens’ industrial PCs, the S7-1500 software controller, the TIA Portal and the SCADA system Simatic WinCC, among others. As a result, SSB’s product portfolio will feature a globally standardized automation platform, and SSB will introduce a new, configurable automation system for its range of systems. This agreement builds upon a previous partnership.

In June, publicly held Entegris, a supplier of specialty chemicals and advanced materials solutions for the microelectronics industry, acquired Flex Concepts for an undisclosed amount. Flex Concepts sells bioprocessing single-use bags and fluid-transfer solutions.

In July, Pluristem Therapeutics entered into a strategic collaboration with Thermo Fisher Scientific, combining Pluristem’s expertise in cell therapy manufacturing, clinical development and QC with Thermo Fisher’s experience in cell therapy development and bioproduction scaleup.

In August, the Swedish government and GE Healthcare opened the 27,000 ft² (2,500 m²) Testa Center in Uppsala, Sweden. The Center houses four bioprocessing labs for testing new discoveries for the production of biopharmaceuticals. Cell culture matrices firm BioLamina is the first company to run a project at the Center. Sweden invested €10 million ($11 million) in the Center and GE invested € 4.5 million ($5 million).

Product Introductions

In August, C-CIT Sensors launched the MeMo affordable and easy-to-handle single-use wireless bi-parametric metabolic monitoring system for the continuous online/real-time measurement of glucose and lactate in cell cultures. The electrochemical, enzyme-based sensor can be used in defined cell culture media or blood.