Launch of a new Protein A Chromatography Resin for purification of Antibody Drugs

OSAKA, Japan--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Kaneka Corporation on 19/09/2012 (Osaka, Japan, President: Kimikazu Sugawara) announces the launch of KANEKA KanCapA, a new Protein A Chromatography Resin for the purification of therapeutic antibodies. “KANEKA KanCapA” exhibits high antibody adsorbing capacity and alkaline resistance.

“Native’ Protein A ligand. Immobilization of our improved Protein A ligand to highly cross-linked cellulose beads allows KANEKA KanCapA to exhibit alkaline resistance, stability over repeated cycle use, and to be used at high flow rates from laboratory to industrial scale with high binding capacity.”

Therapeutic antibodies represent an innovative class of drugs used to treat a wide range of diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and cancer. Protein A chromatography resin is widely used in the production of therapeutic antibodies due to its high affinity and excellent selectivity for antibodies. Utilizing our expertise in protein design and genetic engineering, we have made significant improvements to ‘Wild type’ or “Native’ Protein A ligand. Immobilization of our improved Protein A ligand to highly cross-linked cellulose beads allows KANEKA KanCapA to exhibit alkaline resistance, stability over repeated cycle use, and to be used at high flow rates from laboratory to industrial scale with high binding capacity.

As a result of positive feedback and evaluation results from our customers we are pleased to announce the commercialization and sales of KANEKA KanCapA in October 2012. We will introduce KANEKA KanCapA at BioProcess International (Oct. 8^th – 12^th, Providence RI, USA) and at CPhI Worldwide (Oct. 9^th-11^th, Madrid, Spain). Our expectation is that the excellent properties of KANEKA KanCapA will allow customers to develop stable, streamlined and cost effective antibody purification processes.

In addition we are investing our research and technology resources towards the development of the next generation chromatography resins having the high quality and novel performance for the production of biopharmaceuticals. Along with our group companies, Eurogentec S.A. (Liege, Belgium) for contract manufacturing of biopharmaceuticals and GeneFrontier Corporation (Chiba, Japan) for drug candidate exploration, KANEKA will continue to offer technical and cost effective solutions in the field of biopharmaceuticals.