Miltenyi Biotec

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Miltenyi Biotec is a global biotechnology and biomedical company with its headquarters in Bergisch Gladbach . It is the leading supplier of Magnetic Cell Sorting and Analysis (MACS) products. The company was founded in 1989, making it one of the oldest and largest German biotechnology companies in terms of number of employees and turnover.

Products and services

The focus of the product range is on a process developed by the company's founder, Stefan Miltenyi , to separate cells using antibodies bound to magnetic particles . On the basis of this technology called Magnetic Cell Separation (MACS), various reagents and devices have been and are primarily developed and sold for cell biological and immunological issues. With a market share of around 70 percent, Miltenyi Biotec is the global leader in the field of cell separation and analysis, both in research and for clinical applications in the field of cell therapy. The company's product range also includes reagents and devices for cultivating cells and for other cell biological analysis processes. In addition, reagents and devices in the field of molecular biology ( nucleic acids , proteins , viruses ) are offered and cell separation and cell processing products for clinical use are sold.

As a service, Miltenyi Biotec offers in particular gene expression analyzes as well as the contract manufacturing of biological products according to GMP standard ( Good Manufacturing Practice ) for process development and production in the pharmaceutical sector.

Application examples

The MACS products are used by users around the world to separate or sort cells, especially those of the blood, using specific surface markers. In this way, for example, T lymphocytes , B lymphocytes , stem cells , NK cells or dendritic cells and subpopulations of such cells can be enriched. Isolated stem cell populations based on surface features such as CD34 or CD133 are used clinically in the field of cell therapy. Another product for clinical use is a device for the therapeutic application of apheresis procedures .

Miltenyi Biotec also sells specific antibodies - fluorochrome conjugates against surface markers for cell biological analysis . Magnetic particles can be used not only to separate cells but also to isolate mRNA . After they have been converted into cDNA , the gene expression can be analyzed using microarrays .

history

The company was founded in 1989 as a spin-off from the working group of Andreas Radbruch , currently director of the German Rheumatism Research Center Berlin (DRFZ), at the Institute for Genetics at the University of Cologne . It is named after its founder and managing director, the physicist Stefan Miltenyi.

The range of products and services was also expanded to other areas through acquisitions of other companies or their takeover. In October 2002, Miltenyi Biotec took over the adsorber technology division from PlasmaSelect AG and has since been marketing the corresponding products under the name TheraSorb . The relevant department is based at the Teterow site in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania . By taking over PST PlasmaSelect Teterow GmbH, also a former division of PlasmaSelect AG, Miltenyi Biotec acquired a production facility in Teterow a short time later for the GMP-compliant manufacture of biochemicals and pharmaceutical products, which now functions as the Bioprocess division of Miltenyi Biotec. With around 400 employees, the branch in Teterow is the second largest location of the company in terms of the number of employees next to the headquarters in Bergisch Gladbach with around 1,500 employees.

In July 2003, Memorec Biotec GmbH in Cologne was initially a subsidiary of Miltenyi Biotec GmbH and was later integrated into it. As a result, the range has expanded to include products and services in the area of molecular biology ( MACSmolecular division ).

Over the years Miltenyi Biotec acquired numerous other companies: Owl Biomedical in Santa Barbara (2013), Lentigen in Gaithersburg (2014), Sensovation AG in Radolfzell (2017) and LaVision BioTec in Bielefeld (2018).

Corporate structure

The managing directors are Stefan Miltenyi, Boris Stoffel, Norbert Hentschel, Jürgen Schmitz and Antoon Overstijns. In addition to the headquarters, there is a location in Germany in Teterow , Radolfzell (Sensovation AG, acquisition in 2017) and Bielefeld (LaVision Biotec, acquisition in 2018). Foreign branches exist in the USA , Great Britain , France , Italy , Sweden , Spain , the People's Republic of China , Australia , Japan , South Korea , the Netherlands , Switzerland and Singapore . The company currently has almost 3,000 employees in 28 countries worldwide.

year Sales in million euros
2003 55.7
2004 73.5
2012 138
2013 146
2014 164
2015 201
2016 245
2017 288
2018 378

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