Agilent Technologies, BIA Separations GmbH Sign Agreement Giving Agilent Access to BIA Separations’ Bio-Monolithic Technology
SANTA CLARA, Calif., and KLAGENFURT, Austria, May 29, 2008
Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) and BIA Separations GmbH today announced the signing of an agreement that gives Agilent access to BIA Separations’ bio-monolithic technology. Agilent plans to commercialize analytical HPLC bio-monolith columns with strong and weak ion-exchange phases and a Protein A phase. BIA Separations currently provides their preparative scale CIM(r) disk and process scale CIM(r) tube bio-monolithic products for purification and bioconversion of bio-molecules.
“Having access to the bio-monolithic technology allows Agilent to provide enabling solutions for the analytical separation of virus particles, plasmid DNA, antibodies and other macro bio-molecules,” said Helen Stimson, vice president and general manager of Agilent’s Global Columns and Supplies Solutions. “This technology, when applied at the analytical scale, will improve bio-drug characterization in development and allow QA/QC and process control labs to better monitor and characterize the production of biologics.”
BIA Separations’ bio-monolithic technology is a revolutionary chromatographic and bioconversion support based on a highly cross-linked porous monolithic polymer. Due to a well-defined pore-size distribution, the monolith provides excellent separation power and efficiency. The support is characterized by flow-independent, high-resolution separations and a flow-independent binding capacity. It can be operated at very high flow rates, significantly decreasing the separation time of large bio-molecules.
“The partnership between Agilent and BIA Separations will make the bio- monolithic technology available to the analytical bio-chromatography market and will allow BIA Separations to focus its marketing and sales activities on preparative and process scale bio-chromatography applications,” said Ales Strancar, BIA Separations managing director and co-inventor of CIM(r) monolithic column technology. “BIA Separations is currently offering enabling and cost-effective purification solutions for large bio-molecules and nano-particles like IgM, plasmid DNA, vaccines, viral vectors and phages at the industrial scale.”
For more information about Agilent’s HPLC systems and Analytical Bio-Columns please visit www.chem.agilent.com.
About BIA Separations
BIA Separations is the only worldwide manufacturer of CIM Convective Interaction Media — short monolithic chromatographic columns optimized for the separation and purification of large bio-molecules on laboratory and industrial scale. Information about BIA Separations is available on the Web at www.biaseparations.com.
About Agilent Technologies
Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) is the world’s premier measurement company and a technology leader in communications, electronics, life sciences and chemical analysis. The company’s 19,000 employees serve customers in more than 110 countries. Agilent had net revenues of $5.4 billion in fiscal 2007. Information about Agilent is available on the Web at www.agilent.com.