Merck KGaA Joins the DiViNe Project

On Sept. 14, 2016, Merck KGaA Darmstadt, Germany announced that the company has joined the DiViNe Project, a European consortium of six companies to address challenges facing the development, manufacture, and delivery of vaccines. The objective of the project is to create an integrated cost effective purification program tailored for vaccines that achieve higher yields while preserving product integrity.

Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany will focus on simplifying the process of vaccine purification that typically relies on affinity chromatography. Merck KGaA will provide chromatographic materials and coupling technologies for the project, the company said in a press announcement. The project’s purification platform will be tested first with heterogeneous vaccines including glycoconjugates, protein antigens, and viruses. After the platform is validated, the consortium plans to implement the platform in downstream processes for other biologics.

Other members of the consortium include Affilogic (France), Aquaporin (Denmark), GenIbet Biopharmaceuticals (Portugal), and GlaxoSmithKline (Italy). The project will be coordinated by iBET (Portugal) and has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement N° 635770.

Source: Merck KGaA