Meridian Life Science, Inc. (Cincinnati, OH, USA) cited increased demand for contract R&D and biological reagent manufacturing as the motivating factors behind the renovation and expansion scheme, which follows the 2009 investment that resulted in an additional cleanroom biomanufacturing suite, a sterility suite, and a pilot production laboratory.

The new facility will be located in Memphis, TN, USA, where it will consolidate all current R&D laboratories in a centralized R&D center. Other areas of the facility will be available for construction of up to five contract manufacturing, cell culture, and purification laboratories designed to support increased demand for contract manufacturing of monoclonal antibodies, viral antigens, and recombinant proteins.

The R&D center and the contract manufacturing laboratories will be equipped with state of the art systems for cell culture and protein purification. Also included in the expansion plan is the construction of a molecular biology laboratory with RT-PCR capabilities and an expanded quality control laboratory for testing incoming and outgoing materials.

Dr. Lourdes Weltzien, general manager of the Meridian Life Science Memphis Facility, said, "This recent round of expansion is necessary to provide the level and quality of contract manufacturing support our customers expect and require for their custom and critical biological reagents. We are excited and committed to increasing our capacity to service our customers, who can benefit from our core competence in cell culture, protein production, and purification. This recent expansion reaffirms our commitment as a leader in contract R&D and biologics manufacturing."

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