Medium 199 was originally developed for nutritional studies of chick embryo fibroblasts. It has broad species applicability, particularly for cultivation of non-transformed cells. Medium 199 is widely used in virology, vaccine production, and in vitro cultivation of primary explants of mouse pancreatic epithelium, and rat lens tissues. We offer a variety of Gibco™ Medium 199 modifications for a range of cell culture applications. Find the right formulation using the media selector tool.
The complete formulation is available.

Compared to other basal media, Medium 199 contains unique components, including adenine, adenosine, hypoxanthine, thymine, and additional vitamins. Medium 199 is available with Earle's salts for use in a CO₂ incubator, or with Hanks' salts for use without CO₂.

cGMP Manufacturing and Quality System
Gibco™ Medium 199 is manufactured at a cGMP compliant facility, located in Paisley, Scotland, UK. The facility is registered with the FDA as a medical device manufacturer and is certified to the ISO 13485 standard. For supply chain continuity, we offer a comparable Gibco™ Medium 199 product made in our Grand Island facility (11825-015). This facility is registered with the FDA as a medical device manufacturer and is certified to the ISO 13485 standards.

Medium 199 contains no proteins, lipids, or growth factors. Medium 199 uses a sodium bicarbonate buffer system (2.2 g/L) and therefore requires a 5–10% CO₂ environment to maintain physiological pH.

Concentrated forms of Gibco™ cell culture medium require sodium bicarbonate supplementation, pH adjustment, and filtration at the time of preparation (see protocol for details).