International pharmaceutical company Sartorius Stedim Biotech and BD Diagnostics, a segment of Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD), a global medical technology company, recently announced their collaboration to develop, manufacture and market various ready-to-use, pre-filled media products for microbiological applications in pharmaceutical, biotech and research laboratories.

Mr Dominique Baly, member, Sartorius Group executive committee, said, "Through our agreement with BD, we have created an excellent collaboration. BD is known worldwide for its expertise in manufacturing and filling of microbial media. BD's expertise combined with Sartorius Stedim Biotech's know-how in polymeric technologies and applications will help us further extend our expert capabilities in the field of microbiological monitoring."

Sartorius expertise in the development of membranes offers high-quality, single-use filter products for concentration of microbial contaminants in the lab.

As part of this strategic collaboration, BD will fill special Sartorius single-use products with BD culture media and supply these to Sartorius as prepackaged products.

In addition, both the companies are said to be exploring options of extending their existing business relationship by pursuing further innovative solutions in the field of microbiological diagnostics.

"The products we plan to develop under our agreement with Sartorius Stedim Biotech will enhance laboratory efficiencies for our pharmaceutical, biotech and research customers with these unique product offerings," said Mr Bob Ferguson, VP & GM, BD Diagnostics - Diagnostic Systems, Industrial Microbiology.

Mr Ferguson further added, "By combining Sartorius Stedim Biotech's bioprocessing and filtration expertise with BD's microbiological media capabilities, customers will benefit from improved lab productivity and standardization of sample processing."