SAFC Biosciences™ and Celltrion Collaborate to Optimize Cell Culture Process

SAFC Biosciences has previously worked with Celltrion to provide media development support through its imMEDIAte ADVANTAGE™ program. Discussions surrounding this newly-announced collaboration, which the companies view as a prelude to a likely long-term Supply Agreement for cell culture reagents, began in 2006. Celltrion will employ SAFC Biosciences’ Development Services offering to increase its clone productivity, making the production of ingredients more economical. In addition, both companies have also agreed to mutually develop risk management strategies, ensuring the uninterrupted supply of critical cell culture reagents.

Commenting on the latest collaboration, SAFC Biosciences President, Rod Kelley, said: “This agreement combines the capabilities of two leading suppliers to the global biopharmaceutical industry, bringing powerful resources to bear on the high cost of manufacturing pharmaceuticals critical to improving the lives of so many.”

Mr. Jung-Jin Seo, CEO of Celltrion, added: “We are pleased to establish this partnership with SAFC Biosciences. Both companies have strong expertise in cell culture and through their combined knowledge, Celltrion will improve its productivity and development capabilities to best serve its commitment to satisfying global manufacturing services.”

SAFC Bioscience’s Development Services offering includes clone selection, cell-culture medium and process optimization, stability assessments, and dry powder medium scale-up and validation. This range of single company capabilities minimizes delays associated with technology transfers between outsourcing partners. Clone selection features Cell Xpress™ clone selection technology using LEAP™ (laser-enabled analysis and processing) to analyze and select clones based on specific parameters, including protein secretion from a single-cell.

About Celltrion: Celltrion, established in 2002, is a contract manufacturing organization with a headquarters in Incheon, South Korea. Celltrion, an emerging leader in the biopharmaceutical industry, is dedicated to providing high quality services to accelerate product development while offering scalable manufacturing capabilities for our clients and business partners. Celltrion is also investing in research and development of its own products, as well as licensing from biopharmaceutical research companies throughout the world, in order to develop into a fully integrated biotechnology company. Further information can be found online at www.celltrion.com.

About SAFC Biosciences: Headquartered in Lenexa, Kansas, SAFC Biosciences is a leading provider of cell culture materials and development services for upstream and downstream processes in the biopharmaceutical industry. Providing an integrated services package in mammalian cell culture media development, along with analytical and regulatory support, SAFC Biosciences employs a wealth of industry experience and scientific know-how to deliver reliable, consistent solutions that accelerate customer success - from development through to commercialization. The company has a 35-year history as a manufacturing partner providing leading biopharmaceutical companies with the broadest range of highly customized products and services possible.  SAFC Biosciences has six production facilities in the United States, Europe and Australia, and employs 600 people.

About SAFC: SAFC® is the custom manufacturing and services group within Sigma-Aldrich that focuses on high-purity inorganics for high technology applications, cell culture products and services for biopharmaceutical manufacturing, biochemical production and the manufacturing of complex, multi-step organic synthesis of APIs and key intermediates. SAFC has manufacturing facilities around the world dedicated to providing manufacturing services for companies requiring a reliable partner to produce their custom manufactured materials. SAFC has four focus areas – SAFC Pharma™, SAFC Supply Solutions®, SAFC Biosciences™, and SAFC Hitech™ – and had annual sales of nearly $600 million in 2007. SAFC is one of the world’s 10 largest fine chemical businesses. For more information about SAFC, visit www.safcglobal.com

About Sigma-Aldrich: Sigma-Aldrich is a leading Life Science and High Technology company. Its biochemical and organic chemical products and kits are used in scientific and genomic research, biotechnology, pharmaceutical development, the diagnosis of disease and as key components in pharmaceutical and other high technology manufacturing. The Company has customers in life science companies, university and government institutions, hospitals, and in industry. Over one million scientists and technologists use its products. Sigma-Aldrich operates in 36 countries and has 7,900 employees providing excellent service worldwide. Sigma-Aldrich is committed to Accelerating Customer Success through Leadership in Life Science, High Technology and Service. For more information about Sigma-Aldrich, please visit its award-winning Web site at www.sigma-aldrich.com.

Cautionary Statement: This release contains forward-looking statements relating to future performance, goals, strategic actions and initiatives and similar intentions and beliefs and other statements regarding the Company’s expectations, goals, beliefs, intentions and the like, which involve assumptions regarding the Company’s operations and conditions in the markets the Company serves. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

SAFC®, SAFC Supply Solutions® and Sigma-Aldrich® are registered trademarks and SAFC Pharma™, SAFC Biosciences™ and SAFC Hitech™ are trademarks of Sigma-Aldrich Biotechnology L.P. and Sigma-Aldrich Co.