Bio-Rad Selected to Supply Resins for Inhaled Insulin Project
Bio-Rad was awarded an initial three-year contract, the largest in its history, to provide product and process chromatography support for the purification of recombinant human insulin. The transaction should result in sales of $6.8 million for Bio-Rad over the three-year term. Bio-Rad expects to soon negotiate a new, long-term contract as the inhaled insulin product is cleared for marketing. In anticipation, Bio-Rad is upgrading its northern California manufacturing facility to expand production capacity and streamline production over the long term.
Bio-Rad had been providing the resin to Hoechst AG and Hoechst Marion Roussel (Aventis Pharma's predecessors) for several years. "They know our quality and reliability," said Norman Schwartz, Vice President of Bio-Rad's Life Science Group. "This is a very significant order, both in terms of growth for the Company and in the importance of the project."
Bio-Rad will begin shipping the resin in the third quarter of 2000 to Diabel's new insulin production plant now under construction in Frankfurt, Germany. The manufacture of recombinant human insulin will be the largest production of any recombinant biotechnology product in history.
For more information: Tom Chesterman, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Bio-Rad Laboratories, Life Science Group, 2000 Alfred Nobel Dr., Hercules, CA 94547. Tel: 510-724-7000. Fax: 510-741-5815.
Angelo DePalma