SAFC® Partners with CatScI Ltd. to Offer Comprehensive Catalysis Services

ST. LOUIS, Nov. 5, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Sigma-Aldrich Corporation (NASDAQ: SIAL) today announced that SAFC^® Commercial (www.sigma-aldrich.com/safc), its custom manufacturing services business unit, has entered into a services agreement with CatScI Ltd. (www.catsci.com), a UK-based catalysis company focused on maximizing yield, optimizing quality, reducing waste and minimizing chemical development costs through reaction understanding. SAFC customers will immediately benefit from the relationship through rapid access to new reactions, homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis, biocatalysts, solvent selection and process development, in addition to metal removal, recovery and recycling services.

"The strategic partnership combines CatScI's extensive expertise in catalyzed reactions and complex chemical processes with SAFC's strength in process development, scale-up and manufacturing of high-value products," said Andreas Weiler, Head of Global Strategic Marketing for Contract Manufacturing Services & Solutions at SAFC. "As a combined offering, we are able to provide customers a single source for high-quality, high-value fundamental research, development, scale-up and manufacture, with additional process development resources for customers to screen projects more quickly, and efficiently maximize catalyst reactions using the appropriate ligands, solvents and science."

"The level of collaboration builds naturally on each company's strong foundation. CatScI's technology platform and methodology is differentiated to provide unique research and development in a cost- and time-efficient manner. Customers can take advantage of our expertise in both chemo- and bio-catalysis for the suggestion, screening, selection, development and optimization of reactions and processes. In essence, we provide innovative solutions to all types of challenging synthetic chemistry problems," said Simon Tyler, Commercial Director at CatScI Ltd.

The importance of catalysis to the pharmaceutical industry has steadily grown over the past two decades due to several interrelated factors: increasing regulatory requirements such as policies on single-enantiomer drugs and environmental protection; the pressure to reduce drug development cost and time; and the continued discovery of new practical catalysts from both academia and industry. Approximately 90 percent of chemicals now require the use of catalytic processes in their manufacture. With chemical targets becoming more complex and the average number of transformations required to synthesize an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) continuing to climb and currently averaging 12 synthetic steps, industrial chemists look increasingly to employ catalysis to achieve concise and economical processes in R&D and production. 

CatScI Ltd. employs a combination of computational, statistical and synthetic methods and advanced technology for the rational exploration of reaction space, with access to hundreds of different catalysts and extensive experience in the investigation of the influence of the many experimental parameters at play. 

This catalysis services offering is currently available for customer application. To learn more, please visit www.sigma-aldrich.com/safc.

The foregoing release contains forward-looking statements that can be identified by terminology such as "expect," "provides," "should," "believe" or similar expressions, or by expressed or implied discussions regarding potential future revenues from products derived therefrom. You should not place undue reliance on these statements. There can be no guarantee that the products in SAFC's service offering will continue to meet the demands of the marketplace. Nor can there be any guarantee that any of these products will achieve any particular levels of revenue in the future. Such forward-looking statements reflect the current views of management regarding future events, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. In particular, management's expectations regarding these products could be affected by, among other things, unexpected regulatory actions or delays or government regulation generally; the Company's ability to obtain or maintain patent or other proprietary intellectual property protection; competition in general; government, industry and general public pricing pressures; the impact that the foregoing factors could have on the values attributed to the Company's assets and liabilities as recorded in its consolidated balance sheet, and other risks and factors referred to in Sigma-Aldrich's current Form 10-K on file with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Sigma-Aldrich is providing the information in this press release as of this date and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

About SAFC:  SAFC Commercial, the custom manufacturing and services business unit of Sigma-Aldrich Corporation, is recognized as a top 10 global specialty chemicals and biologics supplier. As a trusted manufacturer for the life science and high technology industries, SAFC works closely with customers to resolve development challenges and accelerate the product pipeline utilizing its global "Centers of Excellence" and dedicated manufacturing facilities. Its rich portfolio includes high-purity inorganic materials for high technology applications, critical raw materials and extensive biologics safety testing services for biopharmaceutical manufacturing, and complex, high-potent APIs and key intermediates for pharmaceutical manufacturing. For more information, visit www.sigma-aldrich.com/safc.

About Sigma-Aldrich:  Sigma-Aldrich, a leading Life Science and High Technology company focused on enhancing human health and safety, manufactures and distributes more than 200,000 chemicals, biochemicals and other essential products to more than 1.4 million customers globally in research and applied labs as well as in industrial and commercial markets. With three distinct business units – Research, Applied and SAFC Commercial – Sigma-Aldrich is committed to enabling science to improve the quality of life. The Company operates in 38 countries, has more than 9,000 employees worldwide and had sales of $2.6 billion in 2012. For more information about Sigma-Aldrich, please visit its website at www.sigma-aldrich.com.

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