HISTORY

Germfree Isolator, 1963

Germfree Laboratories Inc. was founded in 1962. From its inception, Germfree’s primary objective has been to manufacture biological safety equipment for the scientific research and healthcare fields.

Germfree has been manufacturing gloveboxes for biological containment since 1962. In 1982 Purified microEnvironments was formed as a division of Germfree Laboratories Inc. and widened the scope of glovebox manufacturing to include both biological and chemical containment in an all stainless steel construction. Since that time, Purified microEnvironments has become the leading supplier of high containment Class III Gloveboxes for the most hazardous biological and chemical agents. Our customers include the FBI, US Army, US Navy, as well as the Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories.

Class III Glovebox System
With Temperature and
Humidity control for the US
Army at Aberdeen Proving
Ground, 2003

Germfree Laboratories Inc. has manufactured Biological Safety Cabinets since the mid 1970’s. Company president, Dr. Jerome Landy, realized the applicability of the technology to the healthcare field and added the “BioFlow Chamber” as a standard product to Germfree’s growing Biological Safety equipment offerings.

In addition to Biological Safety Cabinets Germfree Laboratories Inc. also offers Horizontal and Vertical Laminar Flow Workstations to provide clean air over any critical process.

Germfree equipment has been purchased by more than 5000 institutions and companies in the US and 60 other countries worldwide. Our equipment has even gone into space. Our stainless steel Biological Safety Cabinets are located in more Hospital Pharmacies, Home Healthcare Agencies, Educational Institutions and Oncology offices than those of any other hood manufacturer.

Germfree Laboratories’ equipment is known for its durability and longevity. We have a number of customers that, with little maintenance, have had their equipment running for more than 35 years. We are the sole supplier of Vertical Laminar Flow Workstations to Central Admixture Pharmacy Services (CAPS) locations across the country and have records indicating perpetual operation of our equipment for over 10 years without failure. Since the establishment of CAPS, Germfree Laboratories has provided them with more than 200 units and continues to supply large amounts of equipment for each of their new facility launches.

Approximately 10 years ago Germfree Laboratories Inc. was approached by pharmacists in the New Jersey area to build a fully closed biological safety cabinet for compounding sterile preparations. Retail pharmacies had begun to perform home health care work and were looking for an alternative strategy to fulfill the State Board of Pharmacy’s requirement that the work be done inside a cleanroom.

The Laminar Flow Glovebox/Isolator
Prototype, 1999

Gloveboxes and Isolators had been used in Europe for compounding sterile preparations outside of a cleanroom for many years previous and the technology was further proven by its use in Pharmaceutical manufacturing to enclose entire aseptic fill lines. Healix also came to Germfree looking for equipment that would allow them to complete their compounding of parenteral solutions while awaiting the completion of cleanroom construction.

After much feedback and advice from the interested pharmacists, the first generation LFGI was built and purchased in early 2000. Since that time we have made minor modifications to increase user productivity and comfort as well as transportability.

Laminar Flow Glovebox Isolator, 2003

When the new USP <797> regulations were announced, Germfree Laboratories Inc. immediately realized that our current LFGI product description of the barrier isolator mentioned in the document. In fact, it surpassed the regulations. Since the regulations have come into effect it has been our goal to educate our customer base on their options. We have teamed with two large cleanroom manufacturers (Angstrom Technologies in the East and Modular Cleanrooms in the West) to a representative network that can provide both cleanroom and barrier isolator compliant solutions.

Germfree Laboratories’ goal has always been to provide a full range of quality safety equipment to meet the pharmacists’ needs. Through continued dialogue with practicing pharmacists we will be developing a number of new design elements to further increase productivity and provide an even more ergonomically correct workspace.

The full line of 2007 GERMFREE Pharmacy Division products.