Merck Millipore and VWR Extend Western European Distribution Agreement

Merck Millipore, the Life Science division of Merck, today announced a new non-exclusive, preferred distribution agreement for Western Europe with VWR a global provider of laboratory supplies, equipment and services. The contract includes a range of Merck Millipore products and reagents for chemical and microbiological analysis, which are mainly used in quality control solutions for the pharmaceutical, food and beverage and chemical industries, as well as products for research in the field of organic synthesis and biosciences.

"The new contract continues an important relationship with one of Merck Millipore's largest distributors and reinforces our commitment to providing our existing customers easy access to high quality products," notes Robert Yates, Head of Merck Millipore. "We will give VWR access to more Merck Millipore products and expect with VWR's wide geographic coverage across Western Europe we will be able to reach a larger customer base."

The contract replaces an exclusive chemical distribution agreement between Merck Millipore and VWR covering Western Europe originally signed in 2004. Under the new preferred agreement, Merck Millipore is free to engage with other organizations, but VWR will remain the distributor of choice through December 2018.

"VWR is proud to renew its agreement with Merck Millipore, to provide customers with high quality chemical and analysis products," said Peter Schuele, President European Lab Business, VWR. "We enable science with our assurance of supply through an excellent logistic infrastructure and our ability to combine the chemical offering with consumables, equipment, instrumentation and our rapidly growing service business. Merck Millipore is a very important part in our chemical portfolio and the high value we can bring to our customer base".