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Purolite Life Sciences to increase agarose production capacity to provide 30% of global resin demand

August 31, 2016 – Pharmaceutical –

Llantrisant, South Wales, 31 August 2016 – Purolite Ltd., the worldís second-largest manufacturer and distributor of ion-exchange resins, has commenced engineering work on a state-of-the-art new facility based at its R&D Centre of Excellence in Llantrisant, Wales. Leading process engineers Briggs of Burton have been contracted for the project, and civil work is currently in progress, with the facility set for completion in late spring 2017.

The facility will serve Puroliteís Life Sciences division, and will be utilised for the large-scale manufacture of its Praesto range of ion-exchange and Protein A affinity resins, functionalised on agarose and designed for the purification of monoclonal antibodies. This multimillion pound investment will increase annual production capacity to provide 30% of the worlds agarose demand and boost local supply chains in the South Wales area by an estimated £120 million.

Briggs of Burton will partner with Purolite in creating the manufacturing process design, providing detailed designs of each piece of equipment used in the process, and assist in the design of automation principles. Chris Major, Sales Director of Purolite Life Sciences, comments that, ‘Purolite offer the first realistic alternative to resins offered by GE, and by using advanced manufacturing technology we have streamlined our production to maximise efficiencies and provide the best agarose resins compared to the MabSelect family.’

The move further establishes Purolite Life Sciences as a major player in the innovation and production of chromatography resins. Chris Major continued, ‘For the first time, customers now have a choice of suppliers for chromatography agarose resins. End users will benefit immensely from our continued commitment to innovation, as for many years GE has under-invested in chromatography due to low competition and their large market share. For instance, it took us just 18 months to develop Praesto AP, which is an equivalent product to GEís latest resin, MabSelect SuRe LX’.

Purolite
americas@purolite.com
150 Monument Road, Bala Cynwyd, PA 19004, USA