Millipore Corporation

For other uses, see Millipore (disambiguation).

EMD Millipore

Type	Subsidiary
Founded	1954
Headquarters	Billerica, Massachusetts, USA
Key people	Bernd Reckmann, President and CEO
Products	Filtration Pharmaceutical Equipment and Consumables
Revenue	$991 million USD
Employees	10,000
Parent	Merck KGaA industry = Bioscience
Website	www.millipore.com

EMD Millipore, also known as Merck Millipore outside the United States and Canada, was founded in 1954, listed among the S&P 500 since the early 1990s, is an international biosciences company, known widely for its micrometer pore-size filters and tests. Millipore is organized into the Bioprocess division which makes filters and equipment used during the production of biologics, and the Bioscience division which makes products for customer laboratories.

History

Formation

In 1954 Jack Bush started a filtration company that would grow from a handful of employees to a multinational Life Science corporation with 6,000 employees and annual sales of $1.53 billion by 2007.

This new company pioneered the use of membrane technology in hundreds of applications. Through strategic acquisitions, substantial R&D investments, and international expansion, Millipore broadened its technology and market base to become a leader in the Life Science industry.

In the early 1950s Lovell Corporation won a contract from the U.S. Army Chemical Engineers to develop and manufacture membrane filtering devices and systems used to separate the molecular components of fluid samples.

When the membranes were declassified in 1953 and offered for commercial use, Jack Bush, a Lovell employee, bought the company’s right to the technology for $200,000 and established the Millipore Filter Company which later changed its name to Millipore Corporation to reflect its growing range of products.

Filters

By 1959, Millipore made porous membrane filters of cellulose esters or other materials which resembled paper in sheet form, and were brittle when dry but friable when wet.^[1]

Millipore's cellulose ester filters were used widely in early experiments to regenerate transected nerves in the peripheral nervous system, especially in experiments of sciatic nerve transection in rodents.^[1] Today, the Millipore filters consist of nitrocellulose or polycarbonate membrane nucleopore filters ranging from pore size of 0.2 μm (micrometer) up to 20 µm. The smallest of these are sometimes also measured in pore width of 200 nm (nanometer). And some specialty applications are even measured in the picometer range (pm) of pore-size.

Growth

Millipore aggressively pursued new markets around the world, as the demand for separations technologies grew among researchers, medical schools and hospitals, as well as in the pharmaceutical, chemical, plastics, food-and-beverage, and microelectronics industries.

By 1970, Millipore had established subsidiaries in seven countries. To meet growing worldwide demand for its products, the company opened manufacturing plants in Jaffrey, New Hampshire; Molsheim, France; Cork, Ireland; and several other locations.

Millipore has continually expanded its core capabilities through strategic acquisitions, targeted capital investments, and organic growth.

Millipore’s 2006 acquisition of Serologicals Corporation gave the company leading positions in high-growth markets such as drug discovery products and services, antibodies, cell biology reagents, and stem cell research.

Millipore is now the only company providing both upstream cell culture and downstream separations offerings for biopharmaceutical production.

Milestones

Over the past 50 years, Millipore has introduced thousands of new products, expanded its operations around the world, acquired and divested numerous businesses, and reinvented itself several times to keep pace with evolving customer needs. Here are some of the key milestones representative of Millipore’s changes and growth over the past five decades.

1950s

• 1954: Jack Bush purchases the rights to a new membrane-production process developed by Lovell Chemical Company.
• 1954: Millipore Filter Corporation is officially incorporated.
• 1954: Jack Bush becomes president (and later chairman) of Millipore. Jack is the son of Vannevar Bush, science advisor to President Roosevelt in World War II.
• 1955: Millipore receives its first patent -- for microporous nylon film invented by Stanley Lovell and Jack Bush.

1960s

• 1964: Millipore establishes its first subsidiary, in France.
• 1967: Millipore introduces the Super-Q water purification system.
• 1967: Millipore establishes a subsidiary in Germany.
• 1968: Millipore establishes a subsidiary in Japan.
• 1968: Millipore introduces its Pellicon cassette product, for purifying biotherapeutics.

1970s

• 1971: Millipore introduces the original Millex syringe filter -- the first disposable syringe filter.
• 1972: Millipore establishes a subsidiary in Spain.
• 1972: Millipore opens a manufacturing plant in Jaffrey, New Hampshire.
• 1973: Millipore starts manufacturing in Molsheim, France.
• 1973: Millipore introduces the Milli-Q water purification system, the world’s first lab-scale ultra pure water system.
• 1978: Millipore reaches the $100 million revenue milestone.
• 1978: Millipore opens a manufacturing plant in Danvers, Massachusetts.
• 1979: Millipore acquires Waters Associates Inc., a producer of chromatographic media and HPLC instrumentation.

1980s

• 1980: Millipore introduces its low-protein binding Durapore membrane.
• 1987: Millipore is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
• 1987: Millipore reaches the $500 million revenue milestone.
• 1988: Millipore opens a manufacturing plant in Cork, Ireland.

1990s

• 1994: Millipore divests its Waters Chromatography Division and focuses on its membrane business.
• 1996: Millipore acquires the Amicon separation sciences business from W.R. Grace and Co.
• 1997: Millipore acquires Tylan General, expanding its gas purification offerings for the microelectronics industry.
• 1999: Millipore acquires Bioprocessing Limited, a developer and manufacturer of chromatography.

2000s

• 2002: Millipore opens its Biopharmaceutical Technology Center in Billerica, Massachusetts – an innovative, customer-focused facility.
• 2005: Millipore acquires MicroSafe, a European contract testing laboratory.
• 2005: Millipore acquires NovAseptic, a worldwide supplier of aseptically designed components for biotech and pharmaceutical production.
• 2005: Millipore forms an alliance with Gen-Probe to develop, manufacture and commercialize products for rapid microbiological and virus monitoring.
• 2006: Millipore acquires Newport Bio Systems, a maker of process containers and systems used in biopharmaceutical production.
• 2006: Millipore acquires Serologicals Corporation (which includes the companies Chemicon, Upstate, Linco, and Celliance), expanding its drug discovery and development footprint.
• 2006: Millipore opens a new Research and Development Center in Bedford, Massachusetts.
• 2007: Millipore launches its new brand, signifying the company’s transformation as a Life Science leader.
• 2008: Millipore unveils a major expansion of its Drug Discovery and Development facility in St. Charles, Missouri.
• 2008: Millipore opens a new membrane casting manufacturing facility in Carrigtwohill, County Cork, Ireland.
• 2009: Millipore acquires Guava Technologies, a leading provider of bench top cell analysis systems.
• 2009: Millipore opens state-of-the-art Biomanufacturing Sciences and Training Center in Singapore.
• 2009: Millipore acquires BioAnaLab, a European-based firm specializing in the analysis of biologic drugs and vaccines.
• 2010: Merck acquires Millipore. In future, Millipore will be part of the EMD Group.

Financial history

Millipore Corporation had been publicly-traded on the OTC, or NASDAQ, exchange where it had paid a cash dividend to shareholders every year since 1966.^[2]

In 1969, Waters Corporation founder James Logan Waters asked Dimitri D'Arbeloff, then president of Millipore Corporation, to join Waters Corporation's board of directors in order to help steer the Waters company back to profitability. Millipore's venture capital subsidiary then also made a US$600,000 equity investment in Waters Corp.

Millipore also developed the Millipore chamber, or more formally known as the Millipore Diffusion chamber, a round-shaped chamber widely used for in-vivo research, sealed at each end with a cell-impenetrable cellulose filter, which permits the growth of transplanted cells or tissue, while allowing nutrients through.

Through the long bear market of the 1970s, Millipore's stock rose over fourfold to its peak in 1985. Earnings were rapidly growing through the early 1980s, and had nearly tripled by then to over US$30 million.^[2]

In 1986, the stock split two-for-one, and in 1987 it again doubled from its 1985 peak, as the P/E ratio continued to expand into the mid 20s range. By year end 1987 earnings had grown to nearly US$45 million. Also in 1987 Millipore Corporation moved from the NASDAQ exchange to the New York Stock Exchange, where it traded under the new ticker symbol MIL.^[2]

Coming out of the 1990-1991 recession, Millipore Corporation's earnings suffered between 1992 and 1993, dropping again to as low as US$30 million that second year. But by 1995, they had more than recovered, nearly tripling from that low to almost US$85 million. However, the company had accumulated US$105 million in long-term debt by then as well.^[2]

By the mid 1990s Millipore Corporation had been added to the S&P 500 list of the biggest publicly-traded companies in the United States. In 1995 the stock split again two-for-one, and by early 1996 it had doubled again in price from the 1987 peak.^[2]

In late October, 2005, Millipore acquired NovAseptic for US$91 million, a Swedish company specialising in aseptic processing equipment for making pharmaceutical and biologic drugs. Earlier in the week it had bought MicroSafe for US$9.3 million, a Netherlands microbiological testing company.^[3]

In 2005, Millipore posted revenues of US$991 million.^[4] As of 2007^[update], it had 5,800 employees,^[4] and offices and subsidiaries in 32 countries.^[5]

In early 2010, Merck KGaA agreed to acquire all outstanding shares of Millipore's common stock, including net debt. The deal is valued at approximately EUR 5.3 billion (US$ 7.2 billion). ^[6][7] Merck KGaA is not associated with Merck & Co., although the two companies stem from the same parent company.

Products

• Milli-Q - a high-end water filter for biochemical and scientific use.

In fiction

In Michael Crichton's early novel, The Andromeda Strain, millipore filters of varying pore sizes are used in the laboratory to determine the size of a microorganism.

In Jurassic Park, the later novel by the same author, the material used to make synthetic dinosaur eggshells was called "millipore".

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Bassett (1959). "Peripheral Nerve and Spinal Cord Regeneration: Factors Leading to Success of a Tubulation Technique Employing Millipore". Experimental Neurology 1: 386–406
2. ^ ^{a b c d e} Standard & Poor's Stock Guide, various issues
3. ^ Millipore buys NovAseptic for $91m, in-Pharma Technologist.com, 11/07/2005
4. ^ ^{a b} Millipore Corporation. "Millipore - Press Room - Quick Facts". http://www.millipore.com/corporate/pressroom.nsf/docs/quickfacts. Retrieved 2007-09-10. 
5. ^ Millipore Corporation. "Millipore - Worldwide Offices". http://www.millipore.com/offices.nsf/home. Retrieved 2007-09-10. 
6. ^ Merck KGaA and Millipore Announce Transaction
7. ^ STOCKS NEWS US-Merck KGaA to buy Millipore for $6 bln

External links

• Millipore Corporation web site