Press Release

The full press release can be downloaded as a pdf.

Japan grants Patent for ChromaCon's N-Rich^® Process

Zurich, February 2, 2015. The Japan Patent Office granted ChromaCon full protection of its N-Rich^® process technology in January 2015.

The N-Rich^® process is a novel chromatographic process principle based on a twin-column configuration, offering significant advantages for the enrichment and purification of minor compounds amidst an excess of other compounds. The process principle is particularly suitable for isolation of product-related impurities and for the isolation of biomarkers and other proteomic applications. It is applied on the Contichrom^® equipment using the ChromIQ^® software. Once designed from a batch chromatogram using a user-friendly process wizard, the N-Rich^® process runs fully automatically, potentially saving weeks of work including tedious repetitive HPLC analytical separations and fraction analyses.

The process principle consists of the selective chromatographic enrichment of target compounds that elute at a defined time-point and at the same time the depletion of overlapping non-target compounds. In this way, an enrichment of the target compound by hundred- or even thousand-fold can be achieved in an automated way.

The Japanese Patent Office honored the originality and innovation of the invention by allowing a fast track designation route through the Patent Prosecution Highway, a route set up to allow such patents to be evaluated and approved faster. Between filing and approval, less than two years have elapsed.

Commenting on this favorable decision for ChromaCon, COO Dr. Thomas Müller-Späth noted: "We are pleased that N-Rich has been approved so rapidly. It will be a valuable tool for researchers and developers and will enable them to isolate compounds much more effectively.”

To find out more about N-Rich^® and ChromaCon please contact us directly or visit our website www.chromacon.com

About ChromaCon

ChromaCon AG is a private Life Science Tool company located in Zürich, Switzerland, providing novel, best-in-class chromatographic process solutions to the biopharmaceutical industry. ChromaCon has developed and patented process principles, process control, equipment designs and operating software for cyclic and continuous chromatography, providing significant CAPEX and OPEX cost savings and enabling scalable chromatographic solutions for large scale purification applications. Its Contichrom^® CUBE equipment line is marketed worldwide by ChromaCon and its distributors and its HPLC lab-scale equipment is co-marketed worldwide with its partner Knauer (Germany). ChromaCon has provided global licenses for its process technologies to LEWA for implementation into GMP scale-up systems. In addition, ChromaCon develops and markets affinity purification solutions for column and membrane chromatography applications and tools for site-specific protein conjugation.

ChromaCon Contact

Dr. Michael Bavand, CEO, michael.bavand@chromacon.com