Showa Denko K.K. (SDK) signed a strategic partnership with BIA Separations. The partnership includes SDK’s investment in BIA as well as joint marketing and R&D.
Under the agreement, SDK will expand its business to a market of purification resins used for manufacturing biopharmaceuticals and industrial applications. SDK will also acquire know-how concerning development, production, and quality control.
Based in Tokyo, Japan, SDK is conducting a separation/refining business, developing, manufacturing, and selling various products pertaining to high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The company has been providing a variety of analytical HPLC columns named Shodex™ for more than 40 years. SDK expects the collaboration with BIA to achieve synergy in terms of both technology and product mix.
BIA Separations, located in Austria, is the developer and manufacturer of CIM Convective Interaction Media®, short monolithic chromatographic columns optimized for the separation and purification of large biomolecules and viral particles on the laboratory and industrial scale.
Earlier this year, BIA entered a purification partnership with JSR, also headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. The companies started a joint global marketing and sales effort as well as collaborative R&D activities in the area of downstream purification to aid in the manufacture of vaccines, DNA, and antibody-based medicines.