Maxwell Technologies, Inc. announced that its PurePulse Technologies subsidiary and Millipore Corp. formed a strategic alliance to couple PurePulse's proprietary PureBright pulsed light virus inactivation systems with Millipore's proprietary virus removal technology. Millipore also is making an equity investment in PurePulse.
Millipore has exclusive marketing and distribution rights for PureBright systems in the biopharmaceutical market for human and veterinary applications, focusing on the production of recombinant protein therapeutic and diagnostic agents such as monoclonal antibodies, hormones, interferons, growth factors and interleukens.
The PureBright process, which also is used in water purification, medical product sterilization and other bioprocessing applications, uses brief flashes of broad spectrum pulsed light 90,000 times more intense than sunlight at sea level to kill viruses (both enveloped and non-enveloped), bacteria, spores, fungi, protozoa and other microorganisms that can transmit disease. PurePulse's systems cause selective molecular destruction of nucleic acids, allowing inactivation of virus particles and recovery of functional proteins.
Susan Vogt, president of Millipore's Biopharmaceutical Division, noted: "This strategic alliance allows us to provide an even more complete viral clearance solution to our biotech customers. Viral contamination is obviously a concern to our customers, and we can now combine our 'passive' viral clearance filter technology with 'active kill' pulsed-light virus inactivation systems."
Customer beta testing of the new virus inactivation system is expected later this year.
Ted Toch, PurePulse's president and chief executive officer, said that the alliance with Millipore gives PurePulse immediate access to a large, high- value, virus and pathogen inactivation market segment.
"Millipore's leadership in filtration technology and established biopharmaceutical customer base make it an ideal strategic partner for us," Toch said. "During the evaluation and due diligence process, we had an opportunity to meet with many of Millipore's customers to verify their acceptance of our technology and validate our business approach to the biopharmaceutical market."
Toch said that, in addition to working with Millipore, PurePulse is collaborating with Culligan International Company to develop consumer and commercial water purification systems, and with several other companies to apply the PureBright technology for applications in the production and processing of blood plasma derivatives, vaccines, blood components, medical implants and other medical products.
Carl Eibl, president and chief executive officer of Maxwell Technologies, said that with the Millipore and Culligan strategic alliances in place, and other significant customers working with PurePulse in each of its target markets, Maxwell plans a spin-off of PurePulse shares to Maxwell's shareholders before the end of 2002.
Source: Maxwell Technologies, Inc.
