MilliporeSigma Expands Public Health England Distribution Pact

MilliporeSigma has expanded its distribution alliance with Public Health England (PHE) to include the European Bank for induced pluripotent Stem Cells (EBiSC)—a comprehensive iPS cell bank of more than 300 quality-controlled, disease-relevant, patient-derived human iPSC lines.

MilliporeSigma provides reprogramming kits, iPSC culture media and stem cell antibodies and characterization kits for the iPSC workflow. The addition of the EBiSC portfolio expands MilliporeSigma’s distribution relationship with PHE as a distributor of its European Collection of Authenticated Cell Cultures (ECACC) portfolio.

MilliporeSigma will employ its sales, marketing and e-commerce to distribute the EBiSC Human iPS Cell Bank. The distribution agreement includes all geographies except Japan. Financial details were not disclosed.

"This partnership will give customers greater access to a comprehensive suite of human iPSCs for disease modeling," said Udit Batra, chief executive officer, MilliporeSigma. "This is a great addition to our authenticated cell line portfolio and strengthens our offering across the iPSC workflow."

EBiSC is a European partnership project designed to address the increasing demand by stem cell researchers for quality-controlled, disease-relevant, research-grade iPSC lines, data and cell services. Its goal is to establish a centralized European cell bank providing researchers across academia and industry with access to scalable, cost-efficient and consistent high-quality tools for development of new medicines.