Sterling begins large-scale silica production for Nanologica
UK-headquartered contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO), Sterling Pharma Solutions announced the beginning of large-scale manufacture of silica particles for Swedish nanotechnology company, Nanologica.
Earlier this year, Nanologica announced the launch of its preparative chromatography media business, after an agreement to supply quantities of silica of approximately $14m (€12.6m) value to Yunbo Technology, a Chinese company.
Under the agreement, which stretches over six years (2021-2026), Yunbo will be the exclusive distributor of Nanologica’s chromatography material, known as NLAB Saga, in China.
Sterling has taken on the manufacture of the supply, following a service agreement with Nanologica in 2018. The first batch of NLAB Saga is expected to be ready for testing in 2020 and commercially available in 2021.
Through the manufacturing collaboration, Nanologica aims to enable the provision of larger testing samples to customers and expand its customer base within preparative chromatography.
Nanologica’s switch to preparative chromatography
Nanologica had previously focused on analytical chromatography, which aims to identify compounds in liquid solutions, and conduct qualitative and quantitative analyses.
The firm has since expanded to include preparative chromatography, which aims to purify and collect desired molecules away from contaminants.
According to the company, this shift answers an increasing market demand, as ‘vastly’ greater amounts of silica are used in preparative chromatography than in analytical, offering ‘significant potential’ for growth.
