Shimadzu Corporation has signed an investment agreement with Sepragen Corporation (based in California, USA) that specializes in the manufacturing and sales of purification chromatography equipment used in the production process of bio-pharmaceuticals, such as Japan, South Korea, and Southeast Asia, to start exclusive sales and services of their products from November of this year, entering the business of supporting the manufacturing process of bio-pharmaceuticals with high growth potential such as vaccines and gene therapy drugs.

Sepragen Corporation, founded in 1985, is a company with a 38-year history of unique chromatography technology. They excel in product development backed by high technological capabilities, such as radial flow chromatography contributing to high efficiency, purification chromatography equipment equipped with buffer automatic adjustment devices, and single-use replacement parts that improve customer convenience, productivity, and costs.

Purification is an essential process in the production of bio-pharmaceuticals, involving the separation and removal of impurities from raw materials and intermediate products to extract the desired components. The "Purification Chromatography Business" that provides chromatography equipment for pharmaceutical purification and consumables like columns and filling materials has been growing at an average rate of over 10% per year due to the expanding bio-pharmaceutical market in recent years. However, the lack of established analysis and evaluation methods for scaling up the purification process and ensuring the quality of target components often becomes a bottleneck in ensuring a stable supply of bio-pharmaceuticals.

Shimadzu Corporation has been providing analysis equipment and technology, such as liquid chromatographs (HPLC), for research, development, and quality control in the pharmaceutical industry. With this investment and partnership, they will now be able to provide equipment and technology for the entire process from pharmaceutical research and development to manufacturing and quality control. They aim to create synergies between their analytical technology and Sepragen's biopharmaceutical manufacturing-related technology to establish analysis and evaluation methods in the purification process.

The company positions the pharmaceutical market as the most important segment in its medium-term management plan and aims to provide total solutions for bio-pharmaceuticals. By actively collaborating with companies possessing unique technologies, they will continue to promptly implement products and technologies into society, contributing to the swift development and stable manufacturing of bio-pharmaceuticals.

Overview of Sepragen Corporation