PHILADELPHIA, PA, MARCH 23, 2008- GE Healthcare, a unit of General Electric (NYSE: GE), today launched of a range of sterile genderless connectors as part of its ReadyToProcess™ portfolio of ready-to-use bioprocessing systems.  GE Healthcare has acquired exclusive rights to the Disposable Aseptic Connector (DAC) developed by BioQuate Inc, and is now a key component in GE Healthcare’s fully disposable technology offering.  

The DAC launch furthers GE Healthcare’s commitment to increasing efficiency and decreasing time-to-market for customers by eliminating cleaning and validation steps through use of its ready-to-use and single use disposable technologies in biomanufacturing.  The genderless DAC reduces complexity for customers by reducing parts inventory and requires no unique operator skills, power, calibration, or servicing.

The licensing deal includes further agreements with Pall Corporation, settling Pall Corporation’s patent infringement lawsuit with BioQuate Inc. GE Healthcare and Pall have entered into mutual patent licensing agreements that will enable both companies to further develop their respective disposable connective technologies.

“These agreements build on our acquisition of Wave Biotech and our launch of the ReadyToProcess portfolio. With our ready-to-use offering, we’re committing to saving customers’ time, operating expenses and increasing speed, flexibility and capacity of production,” said Nigel Darby, Chief Technology Officer, Life Sciences, GE Healthcare.

“I am very pleased to join forces with GE Healthcare to bring genderless, disposable aseptic connectors to the market.  GE Healthcare has a significant history in the market and will provide a vehicle to bring our DAC connection technology to a broad range of applications as well as providing a worldwide channel to the biotech market,” said Ted Johnson, CEO BioQuate.

GE Healthcare’s new ReadyToProcess portfolio is designed to meet the biopharmaceutical industry’s need for increased speed, simplicity and safety for all areas of bioprocessing, from cell culture and fermentation to final purification. As part of GE Healthcare’s strategic development of disposable and ready-to-use biopharmaceutical processing technologies, the products available today in the ReadyToProcess portfolio include single-use WAVE TM technologies and a set of newly-developed, ready-to-use filtration and chromatography tools.  

ReadyToProcess technologies allow considerable advantages over conventional methods used in bioprocessing, including: higher project throughput and shorter time-to-market due to the elimination of cleaning and cleaning validation steps, elimination of cross contamination problems and reduced training and certification of employees due to the convenience of a ready-to-use format.  

ABOUT BIOQUATE
BioQuate is a privately held Florida corporation that provides today's biopharm industry with patented, innovative disposable devices that improve fluid throughput and maintain sterile system integrity.  The core competency of BioQuate is in developing genderless connection platforms to meet specific needs within the industry.
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