PharmaFluidics extends product range for its µPACᵀᴹ chromatography chips to serve new biopharma markets

PharmaFluidics, an innovative player in the field of analytical chromatography, has announced a product range extension into capillary flow rate liquid chromatography (capillary LC). PharmaFluidics initiates commercial supplies of its new µPAC^ᵀᴹ capLC column, bringing unprecedented sensitivity, reproducibility and robustness to a new range of customers worldwide, including the biopharmaceutical industry. PharmaFluidics’ unique high-resolution µPAC™ microChip technology enables separation and detection of individual compounds in complex biological samples such as biopsies, proteome digests, culture media or biopharmaceutical actives, with unmatched precision.

Micro-Chip Chromatography - From nanoflow rates to capillary flow rates

Building upon their award-winning micro Pillar Array technology (µPAC^ᵀᴹ), the new µPAC^ᵀᴹ capLC column can be operated at capillary flow rates of 1-15 µL/min. This complements the company’s highly successful and record-setting µPAC^ᵀᴹ nanoLC columns, operated at 0.1 to 1.5 µL/min. These ten-fold higher flow rates enable the µPAC^ᵀᴹ technology to be used in a broad range of new markets including bioanalytical testing, or (clinical) proteomics and metabolomics. The new µPAC^ᵀᴹ capLC column is compatible with all commercially available capillary LC systems and can be integrated smoothly in any capillary LC workflow or experimental set-up.

New biopharma markets to serve

Biopharmaceuticals currently account for 25% of the total pharmaceutical market and monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are the fastest growing class of therapeutics. The characterization of both new molecules and biosimilars, requires powerful analytical tools. The mAb downstream purification process also needs to be monitored closely, as host-cell proteins — byproducts of the production process — can greatly affect the efficiency or the safety of the end product. The µPAC^ᵀᴹ technology has already demonstrated its value in these applications. The new µPAC^ᵀᴹ capLC column translates these benefits to the operating conditions these industries are routinely working with, allowing them to perform highly sensitive and robust analyses in high throughput.

Katrien Vanhonacker, PharmaFluidics VP Business Development & Sales, says: “This new column is an important addition to our product portfolio. It shows that PharmaFluidics has the technical capability to grow beyond the nanoflow market. The new µPAC^ᵀᴹ capLC column gives us access to a larger instrument installed base and will open doors to new markets. The column will serve the needs of the analytical audience looking for high sensitivity under very robust and reproducible conditions. Therefore, the bioanalytical labs of the biopharma industry are very interested and highly anticipate our solution. Even before the product launch, we have already received requests for applications like host cell protein testing.”

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