Merck in agreement with Natrix Separations

The acquisition boosts Merck’s single-use chromatography portfolio and accelerates mAb and vaccine manufacturing offering

Merck has entered into an agreement to acquire Natrix Separations, an Ontario, Canada-based provider of hydrogel membrane products for single-use chromatography. The transaction is expected to close in Q3 of 2017. The acquisition boosts Merck’s single-use chromatography portfolio and accelerates mAb and vaccine manufacturing offering.

Natrix is known for its unique technology platform capable of delivering high productivity and impurity removal in a single-use format, an ideal fit with next- generation processing. This acquisition complements Merck’s efforts to drive next- generation bioprocessing, ultimately enabling faster, more efficient technology for its customers.

"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," said Udit Batra, Member of the Merck Executive Board and CEO, Life Science. "This acquisition creates tremendous opportunity to drive growth and advancement in next-generation processing—an area of increasing importance to our customers."

Natrix markets both an anion exchange membrane and cation exchange membrane. Natrix is developing additional products to enable a fully single-use, full-scale biological purification process. "Joining Merck gives us the opportunity to collaborate with some of the best minds in the industry, allowing us to further the great work done by our scientists," says John Chickosky, CEO, Natrix Separations. "I am truly excited to become part of a larger effort and see the benefits of this combination in the advances we will make for our customers and the global scientific community."