MilliporeSigma Collaborates With LabCentral To Foster Biotech Startups

• Company to provide expert guidance and counsel to biotech startups
• New sponsorship to offer access to state-of-the-art collaborative laboratory

MilliporeSigma,announced recently that the company will sponsor the Startup Program at LabCentral, a biotechnology incubator, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. LabCentral is a private, non-profit organization that provides entrepreneurs and innovative life-sciences startups with lab space and resources to nurture the next generation of biotech companies. It comprises approximately 125 scientists and entrepreneurs.

MilliporeSigma's collaboration with LabCentral, like its ongoing Emerging Biotech grant program, gives biotech startups access to process development tools, education programs and training to support their success and strengthen the biotech community.

"Innovation is at the heart of the life science industry and startups play an important role in developing new and often life-changing, scientific discoveries," said Udit Batra, member of the Executive Board, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt Germany and CEO, MilliporeSigma."We are collaborating with LabCentral to be a resource for these emerging companies and to help them get the best start possible."

As a sponsor of the LabCentral Startup Program, MilliporeSigma will "adopt" a startup company which entitles the selected company to a priority spot and one-year prepaid lab bench in LabCentral's shared laboratory workspace. Candidates can consult program rules and submit their application at emdmillipore.com/start-up-program. Submission close is July 2, 2017.

"This is an exciting time at LabCentral as we begin construction on our facility expansion, which will make room for an additional 30 startups," said LabCentral Co-Founder and President Johannes Fruehauf, M.D., Ph.D. "Today, LabCentral has become the de facto standard in co-working facilities for biotech startups. From the breadth and quality of our infrastructure and equipment, to our supportive services and programming, to the LabCentral Startup Program-our sponsors are critical partners. We are thrilled to welcome MilliporeSigma as a Gold sponsor, and look forward to a fruitful collaboration with the technical team."

All Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany news releases are distributed by email at the same time they become available on the EMD Group website. In case you are a resident of the U.S. or Canada please go to ww.emdgroup.com/subscribe to register again for your online subscription of this service as our newly introduced geo-targeting requires new links in the email. You may later change your selection or discontinue this service.

About The Life Science Business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany
The life science business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, which operates as MilliporeSigma in the U.S. and Canada, has 19,000 employees and 65 manufacturing sites worldwide, with a portfolio of more than 300,000 products enabling scientific discovery. Udit Batra is the global chief executive officer of MilliporeSigma.

Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany completed its $17B acquisition of Sigma-Aldrich in November 2015, creating a leader in the $125B global life science industry.

Merck KGaA of Darmstadt, Germany is a leading company for innovative and top-quality high-tech products in healthcare, life science and performance materials. The company has six businesses - Biopharmaceuticals, Consumer Health, Allergopharma, Biosimilars, Life Science and Performance Materials - and generated sales of € 12.85 billion in 2015. Around 50,000 employees work in 66 countries to improve the quality of life for patients, to foster the success of customers and to help meet global challenges.

Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany is the world's oldest pharmaceutical and chemical company - since 1668, the company has stood for innovation, business success and responsible entrepreneurship. Holding an approximately 70 percent interest, the founding family remains the majority owner of the company to this day. Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany operates as EMD Serono, MilliporeSigma and EMD Performance Materials.