Waters New ACQUITY Arc Bio System Brings Advanced Method Transfer Capabilities to Routine Bioseparations

Waters Corporation has introduced the Waters^® ACQUITY™ Arc™ Bio System, a versatile, iron-free, bio-inert, quaternary liquid chromatograph 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.

Since its 2015 launch, the original ACQUITY Arc System has become a workhorse of pharmaceutical development and QC laboratories throughout the world. With the introduction of the ACQUITY Arc Bio System, biopharmaceutical laboratories can take advantage of the power of the ACQUITY Arc™ platform for creating robust and reliable methods that can be transferred easily from lab-to-lab and from one LC instrument platform to another without compromising method integrity.

“For many GLP/GMP laboratories, developing and transferring validated assays for routine product release and multi-attribute monitoring is a fundamental task which Waters is committed to simplifying with the Arc Bio System,” said Dr. Diane Diehl, Senior Director, Pharmaceutical Market Development. “With today’s introduction, and yesterday’s launch of the BioResolve RP mAb Columns, Waters is continuing its commitment to the biopharmaceutical industry by meeting the needs of analytical scientists and lab managers across the discovery, development and manufacturing pipeline.”

The ACQUITY Arc Bio System is ideally suited to run reversed-phase, ion exchange, size exclusion and hydrophobic interaction LC methods with minimal carryover and maximum recovery of biomolecules. The ACQUITY Arc Bio System’s flow paths are made of non-stainless steel and iron-free bio-inert materials designed to minimize undesirable protein interactions and maximize system robustness under salt and pH extremes. What also sets the instrument apart is the unique Arc Multi-flow path™ technology which delivers plug-and-play compatibility with HPLC or UHPLC methods through a selectable dwell volume, emulating the dwell volume of the original instrument. This minimizes the time it takes laboratories to redevelop methods from internal and external partners.

In addition to replicating established HPLC assays, the ACQUITY Arc Bio System can improve the sensitivity, resolution and speed of chromatography methods by leveraging more modern, more efficient 2.5 - 2.7 micron particle column technologies. These include the new Waters BioResolve™ RP mAb Polyphenyl solid core Columns for the reproducible analysis of intact or sub units of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). The system also supports previously developed “legacy” methods on traditional 3 - 5 micron HPLC columns.

The ACQUITY Arc Bio System is compatible with numerous detectors from Waters, including photodiode array, UV/Vis, fluorescence, refractive index, evaporative light scattering and the ACQUITY QDa™ mass detector. In addition, the ACQUITY Arc Bio System features novel Auto Blend Plus™ Technology that automatically blends up to four solvents in any combination or proportion and allows the operator to program in pH and ionic strength for ion-exchange or size exclusion-based methods, or program in the organic solvent concentration and pH for reversed-phase gradient separations. This significantly reduces human error and the task of preparing buffered mobile phases manually. The ACQUITY Arc Bio System is controlled through Waters Empower™ 3 and MassLynx™ software.

The ACQUITY Arc Bio System is immediately available for purchase worldwide.

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