MicroBioLogics Partnership with HPACC for Global Distribution of Microbial Reference Strains

MicroBioLogics, Inc. along with The Health Protection Agency Culture Collections have announced an exclusive partnership for global distribution of microbial reference strains. The collaboration involves bacterial and fungal reference strains from two culture collections within the Health Protection Agency based in the United Kingdom; the National Collection of Type Cultures (NCTC) and The National Collection of Pathogenic Fungi (NCPF).

MicroBioLogics, established in 1971, is a leading producer of lyophilized microorganisms for quality control laboratories world-wide. The company recently achieved accreditation to ISO Guide 34:2000 and became a Certified Reference Material producer. Now, MicroBioLogics and their 125 distribution partners will begin distributing NCTC and NCPF biological materials to microbiology laboratories around the world.

MicroBioLogics CEO Robert Coborn commented, 'Our goal is to provide customers with instant access to the microbial products they need. Whether it's primary reference cultures, lyophilized derivatives or specialized quantitative QC preparations, MicroBioLogics can supply it to them quickly and conveniently. Our partnership with NCTC and NCPF plays an important role in helping us achieve this goal.'

Founded in 1920, NCTC has developed one of the largest collections of medically important bacteria and mycoplasmas in Europe. The collection continues to grow with the addition of new and topical strains relevant to the medical, pharmaceutical, food and water testing industries. NCTC comprises over 5,000 bacterial cultures, together with over 100 mycoplasmas and more than 500 plasmids, host strains, bacteriophages and transposons. NCPF formed in 1946, currently holds over 4,000 fungal strains.

Dr. Barry Holmes, Head of NCTC, states 'Our collection is well known in most international markets and with the help of MicroBioLogics access to our collection of products will increase significantly. We are pleased to expand our business relationship with MicroBioLogics.' In 2008, NCTC granted a license to MicroBioLogics for the production of NCTC derived lyophilized microorganisms for quality control testing.