Advantest Establishes Princeton Facility to Support Sales of TAS7500 Terahertz Spectroscopic/Imaging Analysis System

Presence in nation’s foremost pharmaceutical corridor expands access to critical R&D markets

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Advantest America Inc., a subsidiary of Advantest Corporation (TSE: 6857, NYSE: ATE), today announced the opening of an office in Princeton, New Jersey. The new facility, which incorporates offices and a laboratory, establishes a presence for the company in the heart of the pharmaceutical industry’s most research-intensive corridor, where many leading pharmaceutical companies are headquartered. Advantest’s TAS7500 delivers advanced terahertz spectroscopic technology for rapid, non-destructive imaging and analysis of pharmaceutical samples in the liquid or solid state, enabling previously unattainable levels of 2D and 3D visualization critical to the design, evaluation, and manufacture of pharmaceutical products.

“Because NJ boasts a significant concentration of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies, situating the office in close proximity to key R&D activities will help the company expand its reach in this major market”

Since its introduction in 2011, the TAS7500 has attracted attention from several key drug companies. Leading US pharmaceutical manufacturers, as well as top-tier Japanese pharmaceutical firms, have entered into consultation with Advantest regarding adoption of the system. The new Princeton office will conduct intensive sales and marketing activities in addition to offering system demos at its new laboratory, which is equipped for full-operational research with state-of-the-art pharmaceutical tools including NIR¹, XRD², DSC³, a TGA analyzer⁴, and Raman spectroscopy equipment, as well as two TAS7500 systems each comprising an imaging unit and a spectroscopic unit.

“Through a direct and localized presence, the establishment of a Princeton office allows us the opportunity to better meet the needs of our customer base,” stated Haruo Matsuno, Advantest Corporation’s president and CEO. “Because NJ boasts a significant concentration of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies, situating the office in close proximity to key R&D activities will help the company expand its reach in this major market,” he continued.

The TAS7500 utilizes a proprietary method developed by Advantest to achieve rapid, non-destructive imaging and analysis of pharmaceutical samples in the liquid or solid state. Crystalline qualities, the characteristics of constituents, and even the thickness, density, and internal structure of tablet coating – formerly impossible to analyze non-destructively – may be analyzed and visually rendered in two or three dimensions. The system offers lower costs and higher efficiency at all stages of drug development from lab research to process scale-up. According to Advantest, the TAS7500 is poised to contribute to the new pharmaceutical R&D paradigm, which is based on intelligent risk management, and incorporates the ICH⁵ guidelines that are being adopted by an increasing number of firms.

^1NIR: near infrared spectroscopy

^2 XRD: X-ray diffraction system

^3DSC: differential scanning calorimetry

^4TGA analyzer: thermogravimetric analyzer

^5ICH: The International Conference on Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH), an international advisory group.

Princeton Office Overview

Location:	Advantest America Inc.
	508 Carnegie Center, Suite 102,
	Princeton, NJ 08540
Further Inquiries:	Yoshitake Kobayashi
	[phone]

About Advantest Corporation

A world-class technology company, Advantest is the leading producer of automatic test equipment (ATE) for the semiconductor industry and a premier manufacturer of measuring instruments. Its leading-edge products are integrated into the most advanced semiconductor production lines in the world. The company also focuses on R&D for emerging markets that benefit from advancements in nanotech and terahertz technologies, and has recently introduced multi-vision metrology scanning electron microscopes essential to photomask manufacturing, and 3D imaging analysis tools to the pharmaceutical and transportation industries. Founded in Tokyo in 1954, Advantest established its first subsidiary in 1982, in the USA, and now has subsidiaries worldwide. More information is available at www.advantest.com