Millipore Becomes First Company to Embed RFID Technology in Filtration Products Used for Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing

Millipore Corporation, a leading provider of products and services that improve productivity and results in biopharmaceutical manufacturing and in clinical, analytical and research laboratories, today announced that it is the first company to successfully integrate Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology with filtration products used to manufacture biopharmaceutical drugs.

The new RFID capability will be branded as SMART Technology and will be introduced at the upcoming INTERPHEX^® 2007 Conference, which is being held April 24-26, 2007 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York.

By using RFID technology in filtration products, Millipore’s customers can increase speed by quickly and reliably retrieving critical information, such as when and how the product was manufactured. Additionally, when the filters are coupled with sensors, RFID can deliver real-time information about product performance and identify which fluids are present during the manufacturing process. This information will help customers to ensure regulatory compliance and make recording and conveying manufacturing data faster and more reliable.

Unlike previous labeling methods such as barcodes, RFID enables customers to automatically document product and process information, eliminates the risk of losing critical information, and provides the ability to rewrite their own information into embedded RFID tags.

Other key benefits of the RFID technology include:

• non-line-of-site, enabling improved readability and non-linear access to information
• rewritable and encryptable
• difficult to remove and thus provide greater security
• mechanically and thermally stable
• gamma irradiatable

Millipore has recently entered into an exclusive license with Tack Smart Filter Technology BV to embed the RFID technology in its filters and filtration apparatuses for biopharmaceutical applications. Additionally, Millipore has formed relationships with Tagsys RFID for tags and reader components;
the Tech Group for injection molding and fabrication and Northern Apex-RFID for RFID integration services and instrument development.

“Using RFID technology to record and convey valuable product and process information allows our customers to more efficiently develop and validate key process steps,” said Roland Heinrich, Ph.D., Vice President, R&D of Millipore’s Bioprocess Division. “In an industry where time-to-market and compliance are crucial, RFID improves the speed and confidence with which critical data is exchanged for these steps.”

”This license agreement is a milestone for Tack Smart Filter Technology and confirms the importance of this technology for the worldwide filtration and separation industry,” said Eduard de Haan, President of Tack Smart Filter Technology B.V. “We are proud to support Millipore to retain its leading position in biopharmaceutical filtration and we expect that this agreement will further boost the interest for this technology in other segments of the filtration and separation industry.”