Billerica, MA 8/28/17—MilliporeSigma, the US and Canadian scientific product business of Merck KGaA, has agreed to acquire Natrix Separation for an undisclosed amount. Natrix develops and supplies hydrogel membrane products for single-use chromatography. It provides both anion exchange and cation exchange membranes. “The Natrix technology platform, and the development options and capabilities that this brings for single-use and rapid cycling chromatography, will allow us to accelerate our offering in mAb and vaccine manufacturing,” stated MilliporeSigma CEO Udit Batra. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter.

MilliporeSigma and Natrix has previously partnered for product development, including development of membrane purification products for Protein A resins (see IBO 12/15/16). According to Natrix, advantages of its HD membrans, which utilize convective mass transfer and a microporous hydrogel–filled support matrix, include high flow rates, simultaneous bonding of proteins by multiple charge sites and use with higher-concentrate feed streams. Although single-use technology has experience greater adoption for upstream bioprocessing, the number of downstream solutions are also growing. In 2015, Pall (now Danaher) acquired Targon Biosystems and its BioSMB (Simulated Moving Bed) technology (see IBO 4/15/15), another form of single-use chromatography for continuous processing.