Milford, Mass. – SeraCare Life Sciences (Nasdaq: SRLS), a global life sciences company providing vital products and services to facilitate the discovery, development and production of human diagnostics and therapeutics, today announced it has added lyophilization capabilities to produce high-purity reagent grade HSA (human serum albumin) in powder form.

SeraCare has provided powder-form HSA for diagnostic and research applications for many years (along with diagnostic grade and therapeutic grade HSA in solution).

Bringing in-house the capability to produce reagent grade HSA in powder form creates strong advantages for customers, according to Tamara Smith, Senior Product Manager, SeraCare Life Sciences.

“SeraCare now has the ability to customize reagent grade HSA prior to lyophilization, enabling us to meet the individual needs of our customers,” Smith said. While reagent grade HSA is currently available off-the-shelf, SeraCare will initially provide custom HSA lyophilization services on a made-to-order basis; longer-term the company plans to launch a line of off-the-shelf options as well. Custom applications currently in production include charcoal adsorption to remove hormones or other unwanted material from HSA prior to lyophilization, and producing a caprylate-free grade for customers using HSA in cell culture applications, enabling them to avoid the known interactions of caprylic acid with certain cell lines.

“In addition, because we will gain greater cost control over production, customers that take another look at SeraCare for reagent grade HSA in powder form will find us to be more price-competitive now,” Smith added.

SeraCare’s reagent grade HSA in soluble, powder form is produced from human plasma collected only from FDA-approved facilities and provides an albumin purity level of > 96 percent. It is ideal for use as a diluent and in cell culture work. SeraCare offers the flexibility to meet each customer’s specific need of samples for use in qualification testing prior to material acceptance.

About SeraCare Life Sciences, Inc.

SeraCare serves the global life sciences industry by providing vital products and services to facilitate the discovery, development and production of human diagnostics and therapeutics. The Company’s innovative portfolio includes diagnostic controls, plasma-derived reagents and molecular biomarkers, biobanking and contract research services. SeraCare’s quality systems, scientific expertise and state-of-the-art facilities support its customers in meeting the stringent requirements of the highly regulated life sciences industry.