German Pharmaceutical Company Merck Decides to Close Down Bangalore GeNei

Merck KGaA, a German multinational chemical, pharmaceutical and life sciences company headquartered in Darmstadt, has decided to close down Bangalore GeNei, a company it had acquired in 2009 to bolster capabilities in design, development and production of biological research products, according to people aware of the development. A spokesperson for Merck India confirmed it saying the decision was taken at the beginning of the year and production at the site was stopped on July 31. "Decommissioning activities are going on," the spokesperson said.

This site was employing 39 full time employees (FTEs) and 12 contract personnel. But now the company’s India management has been in detailed dialogue with the impacted employees, supporting their transition and evaluating alternate opportunities where possible, informed Merck Millipore spokespersons.

Moving forward, Merck Millipore will continue to focus on its core businesses to build on its inherent strengths in genomics, proteomics, cell culture, cell analysis, western blotting, disease research tools, analytical sample preparation and bio chemicals, they added. “India has been a priority market and will continue to be so for Merck Millipore. Recently in January, 2015, a campus expansion was announced to enhance capabilities of the additional Bengaluru plant. The facility has a domestic manufacturing and export oriented unit (EOU) serving both international and domestic customers. It is the only location for Merck Millipore manufacturing Standard Tangential Flow Filtration and Chromatography Purification systems. The Provantage Lab and Bio Manufacturing Science Network lab in Bengaluru cater to process development and validation services for the biotech and classical pharma industry,” they informed.

"Merck Millipore will systematically stop the sale of teaching kits, tech ware and molecular biology reagents and custom service of GeNei," the spokesperson said.

Merck Millipore is expected to continue to focus on its core businesses like genomics, proteomics, cell culture, cell analysis, western blotting, disease research tools, analytical sample preparation and bio chemicals.

Bangalore GeNei founded by the leading scientist Dr Padmanabhan Babu in 1989 was manufacturing restriction enzymes, modifying enzymes, DNA vectors and molecular weight markers at its facility in Peenya, Bengaluru. In mid December 15, 2003, it was taken over by the Chennai-based Sanmar Speciality Chemicals Limited (SSCL) and subsequently acquired by Merck KGaA in 2009.

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Source: Medindia