Merck wins R&D 100 Award for first-to-market biopharma purification innovation

Merck recently announced it has received a prestigious R&D 100 Award for its Eshmuno CP-FT Resin, a first-to-market product used in biopharmaceutical manufacturing. The R&D 100 Awards honour the 100 most innovative and significant technologies introduced in the past year. Merck has received 10 R&D 100 Awards in the past seven years.

“This award recognises our innovation in research and development for a product that helps biomanufacturers bring new therapies to patients faster and more cost effectively,” said Udit Batra, CEO–LifeScience, Merck.

Aggregates are impurities in monoclonal anti-body drugs that can reduce efficacy and therefore pose significant risk to patients. These impurities are challenging to remove in the purification process of drug manufacturing. Merck’s Eshmuno CP-FT resin is a tool that removes aggregates, delivering capacities 10 times higher than traditional bind/elute chromatography. The significant reduction in resin and buffer volume results in a smaller manufacturing footprint as well as lower costs. The Eshmuno CP-FT resin is part of Merck’s BioContinuum Polishing Platform.