Grace Introduces Disposable Purification Solution to Lower Cost and Accelerate Drug Development For Biotech

W. R. Grace & Co. (NYSE: GRA) has introduced ProVance™ pre-packed columns, a portfolio of products for cost-effective purification of biologic drugs, specifically monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). Monoclonal antibodies are key therapeutic agents used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, cancer and other diseases. Currently in the U.S., mAbs constitute the single largest biologics product category in the clinical development pipeline. Purification of these agents is a critical step in drug development.

The ProVance™ portfolio of disposable columns come pre-packed with a new silica resin that has a higher capacity and lower cost than the leading alternative technology used for mAb purification. Biopharmaceutical customers have confirmed 40 to 60 percent total operational cost reduction with ProVance™ columns by eliminating time-consuming cleaning and packing steps and achieving more efficient purification. The pre-packed disposable columns further improve biopharmaceutical productivity by lowering the risk of contamination and accelerating time to market.

“Increasingly, biotech companies have been adopting disposable manufacturing solutions in the early stages of the drug development process to reduce development time and capital investments. Until now, the purification technologies used in the downstream portion of the multi-step drug development process have not kept pace,” said Adam Grose, Vice President and General Manager of Grace Discovery Sciences. “Leveraging Grace’s silica purification expertise and material science capabilities, the ProVance™ portfolio of products now brings the flexibility and cost-effectiveness of single use manufacturing to the purification process, allowing companies to realize the benefits of an end-to-end disposable solution.”

“Grace has been manufacturing purification products for the pharmaceutical industry for over 30 years and has a long history of developing silicas for novel applications,” said Joanne Green, President of Grace Materials Technologies. “Along with Grace’s global manufacturing capabilities, Six Sigma quality systems, and a global supply chain, we can deliver the innovation as well as the supply security and regulatory compliance that are essential in the biotech industry.”

About Grace

Grace is a leading global supplier of catalysts; engineered and packaging materials; and specialty construction chemicals and building materials. The company’s three industry-leading business segments—Grace Catalysts Technologies, Grace Materials Technologies and Grace Construction Products—provide innovative products, technologies, and services that improve the products and processes of our customer partners around the world. Grace employs approximately 6,500 people in over 40 countries and had 2013 net sales of $3.1 billion. More information about Grace is available at www.grace.com.

This announcement contains forward-looking statements, that is, information related to future, not past, events. Such statements generally include the words “believes,” “plans,” “intends,” “targets,” “will,” “expects,” “suggests,” “anticipates,” “outlook,” “continues” or similar expressions. Forward-looking statements include, without limitation, expected financial positions; results of operations; cash flows; financing plans; business strategy; operating plans; capital and other expenditures; competitive positions; growth opportunities for existing products; benefits from new technology and cost reduction initiatives, plans and objectives; and markets for securities. For these statements, Grace claims the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Like other businesses, Grace is subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause its actual results to differ materially from its projections or that could cause other forward-looking statements to prove incorrect. Factors that could cause actual results to materially differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements include, without limitation: risks related to foreign operations, especially in emerging regions, including currency exchange rate changes, the cost and availability of raw materials and energy, the effectiveness of its research and development and growth investments, acquisitions and divestitures of assets and gains and losses from dispositions, developments affecting Grace's funded and unfunded pension obligations, its legal and environmental proceedings, costs of compliance with environmental regulation and those additional factors set forth in Grace's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, quarterly report on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K, which have been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and are readily available on the Internet at www.sec.gov. Reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on Grace's projections and forward-looking statements, which speak only as the date thereof. Grace undertakes no obligation to publicly release any revision to the projections and forward-looking statements contained in this announcement, or to update them to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of this announcement.