Emprove® premium brand portfolio expanded
Life Science Solutions achieved growth of 7.9%. On a currency-adjusted basis, the increase amounted to 10%. Sales rose by 16% in the important market of North America and by 19% in Latin America. The business with pharmaceutical raw materials generated particularly strong growth. Emprove®, Merck’s premium brand of pharmaceutical raw materials, generated double-digit growth and was expanded. This brand stands for comprehensive service and excellent quality. The portfolio now comprises three application areas: “Emprove® exp” for use as a pharmaceutical excipient, “Emprove® bio” for use in biopharmaceutical production and “Emprove® api” for use as an active pharmaceutical ingredient.
The aim is to enable customers to work even faster and more cost-efficiently with Emprove®. The new generation of Fractogel™ for protein purification and separation in pharmaceutical production is scheduled for market launch in 2009. Innovations also include new, customized solutions for cleaning biopharmaceutical production facilities.
Targeted investments in innovative cosmetic actives
Business with cosmetic active ingredients sustained a decline in sales owing to weaker demand, e.g. for the self-tanning agent DHA. Here we will concentrate more strongly on innovative, patent-protected products and expand the product range by making targeted investments. The new production plant for Oxynex® ST Liquid started up in India at the end of 2008. This is a stabilizer for light-sensitive raw materials used in cosmetic products and perfumes. We are completing a new plant at the Darmstadt site for producing active ingredients used in sunscreen formulations. Eusolex® UV-Pearls are tiny glass beads in which an innovative UV filter is encapsulated.
Cutting-edge technologies strengthened
In 2008, the technology platform for ionic liquids was further expanded, laying the cornerstone for future growth. Certain ionic liquids can be used as electrolytes for producing a special type of solar cells
(dye-sensitized solar cells). Another cutting-edge product are evaporation chemicals (Patinal) of the Solarpur™ range, which are used to coat the surfaces of solar cells to increase their efficiency.
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