Company Announcements

In November 2017, Repligen extended its long-term supply agreement through 2022 with Purolite Life Sciences for the manufacture of Protein A ligands. Repligen is the main strategic supplier of Protein A ligands to Purolite Life Sciences. Purolite Life Sciences will use and promote Repligen’s OPUS technology for end-to-end solutions for the downstream purification of biologic drugs, specifically monoclonal antibody–based biologics. Purolite Life Sciences provides the Praesto Protein A affinity and ion exchange agarose resins. The companies have been partners since 2015.

PharmaFluidics, which makes the mPAC micro-chip chromatography columns, announced in January that it has raised €7.3 million ($8.7 million) in its most recent financing round.

In January, Waters entered into a comarketing agreement with Malvern Panalytical, which pairs their respective ACQUITY Advanced Polymer Chromatograph System and OMNISEC REVEAL multidetector module for improved characterization. The combination allows for the calculation of absolute molecular weight, intrinsic viscosity and hydrodynamic radius.

In February, Akzo Nobel, whose Specialty Chemicals business supplies Kromasil brand LC columns and media, announced that it has completed the internal separation of its Specialty Chemicals division and expects to complete a sale or demerger of the division by April.

Product Introductions

YL Instruments introduced in November 2017 the YL9100 Plus HPLC, featuring an improved quaternary pump and the new YL9150 Plus LC Autosampler.

Restek launched in December 2017 a 1.8 mm particle size for its Raptor superficially porous particle columns. The column is available in four phase chemistries.

In January, Bio-Rad Laboratories debuted the NGC Fraction Collector for its NGS Chromatography System. The product provides for the flexibility and collection capacity needed for any application, from discovery to scale-up.

Waters unveiled in January the BioResolve RP mAb Polyphenyl 450 Å 2.7 mm solid core columns intended for reversed phase analysis of intact or sub-unit-digested mAbs and antibody drug conjugates using LC/UV and LC/MS. The product line includes application-focused standards, template methods and enhanced levels of application support.

In January, Waters launched the Waters ACQUITY Arc Bio System, a versatile, iron-free, bio-inert, quaternary LC specifically engineered to enable the efficient transfer and improvement of bioseparation analytical methods regardless of the LC platform on which the original method was developed.