Merck Millipore, the life science business of German-based Merck, is collaborating with celares, a privately owned biopharmaceuticals company, to provide pegylation services to customers developing protein-based therapeutics and biosimilars. The new service offering enabled by the collaboration includes feasibility studies, process and analytical development and scale-up from milligram to gram quantities required for pilot and subsequent commercial scale.

Pegylation, the attachment of polyethylene glycol to a molecule, can significantly improve the pharmacological and physicochemical properties of peptide and protein therapeutics and reduce side effects. The delivery system for biologics can enhance protein stability, bioavailability and solubility, overcoming common challenges in the development of therapeutics.

The new services will leverage EMD Millipore’s broad range of functionalized PEG products of different molecular weight and activation chemistry, as well as buffers, solvents and excipients, unit operations employed during the pegylation process and subsequent purification including tangential and normal flow filtration and chromatography.