Business Continuity Management: The Benzonase® Endonuclease Success Story

The need to ensure continuity of business operations reached what was perhaps a new level of importance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Supply chains were put under intense pressure and, in many cases, significantly disrupted while the demand for materials critical to the production of vaccines soared.

One of the products facing unprecedented demand was Benzonase® endonuclease. On the market for more than thirty years, this nuclease is used to digest host cell DNA during the manufacturing of viral vaccines and viral vectors for cell and gene therapy applications. The use of Benzonase® endonuclease enhances process yield, limits fouling of downstream equipment, and helps to ensure patient safety. Demand for this enzyme increased by five-fold within three months during the pandemic and remained high, ultimately being used to manufacture more than two billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines.

This white paper describes MilliporeSigma's business continuity planning process, how it enabled an uninterrupted supply of Benzonase® endonuclease during the pandemic, and the continued evolution of this process, informed by lessons learned in recent years.