On October 8, Singapore based Merck’s new M Lab^TM Collaboration Center brought Singapore's academic groups closer through “ChromConnect” program to demonstrate the pivotal role of chromatography in biopharmaceutical processes. As part of the event, Merck demonstrated its expertise in the application of chromatography in high-purity drug development, from small-scale development to large-scale implementations.

Following pandemics, high-purity drug components are in high demand, requiring optimized chromatography in drug purification processes. Merck continuously drives a sustainable talent flow and improves competencies throughout Singapore and the region, enabling the development of life-saving drugs and vaccines. Located in Singapore's key biopharma hub, the Science park zone, the M Lab^TM collaboration center assists in overcoming barriers in biopharma manufacturing processes.

As part of the demonstration session at M Lab^TM Collaboration Center, experts shared technical insights on analytical and preparative chromatography, with a focus on process scale.

A tour of the M Lab^TM Collaboration Center gave an overview of its small and pilot scale capabilities from Upstream to Downstream. A session on Bioprocess chromatography followed, providing an overview of the biopharmaceutical market, challenges, and recent developments in the field. The demonstrations of small-scale and large-scale chromatography offered insight into the implementation of advanced chromatography in biopharmaceutical manufacturing.

The academic group deep dived into the significance of chromatography in biopharma process optimization from bench to manufacturing scale. The event featured a series of engaging sessions as well as demonstrations on chromatography process development.

Merck’s Shenglan Cao, Head of Customer Applications, BioProcessing APAC explains, "ChromConnect is a initiative to explore M Lab^TM Collaboration Center's strengths in services like overcoming the barriers of Single-use implementations, providing guidelines for process development, troubleshoot existing bioprocesses, and further leveraging technical knowledge as a skill development programme for academic community in Singapore and the region".

To adopt and develop a new biopharma product gaining technical knowledge is imperative. "The primary focus of ChromConnect is to help next-generation scientists acquire new skills and expertise in bioprocessing and formulation development. It is our goal to discover best practices and techniques for implementing next-generation bioprocessing to bring high-purity drug components to the market. This program teaches the development and testing of novel pharmaceutical formulations and techniques based on chromatography” says Karen Chan, Head of Downstream MSAT, South East Asia and Taiwan, Technical and Scientific Solutions.