New Semi-Preparative SFC System Meets Pharmaceutical Industry Purification Standards

Shimadzu Corporation, in partnership with the Enabling Technologies Consortium™ (ETC), announces the release of the Nexera Preparative Supercritical Fluid Chromatography System, ‘Nexera UC Prep’. This next-generation prep SFC system provides the pharmaceutical industry with reliable high-performance semi-prep purification.

The Nexera UC Prep is part of Shimadzu Nexera UC platform, which accommodates a wide variety of analyses and purifications. The platform is based around the Nexera ultra high-performance liquid chromatograph. Each Nexera UC Prep is configurable to user specifications in order to optimally perform the desired purification function including chiral or achiral purifications, single injections, stacked injections, and fraction collections from several microliters to litres.

This complete SFC solution reduces the need for costly and hazardous solvents used in normal phase prep LC, while shortening purification run time and dry down time. Innovative technologies include a flexible format combination injector/fraction collector, CO₂ pump with integrated chiller that requires less lab space and allows for benchtop use, a novel gas-liquid separator design, ‘LotusStream’, to ensure high recovery and low carryover, and easy-to-use preparative software, ‘Prep Solution’, to streamline operations.

Importantly, the newly designed gas-liquid separator, ‘LotusStream separator’, realises a higher recovery ratio and lower carryover than earlier SFC systems. Moreover, the elegant design of LotusStream separator reduces the total size of the recovery system and allows for easy rinsing compared to earlier cyclone-style or centrifugal type gas-liquid separating systems.

“The Nexera UC Prep system is an improved purification instrumentation that meets the specifications and requirements from SFC users across the pharmaceutical industry,” said Mirlinda Biba, PhD, Principal Scientist, Merck & Co Inc, and ETC lead for this project. “This new generation system provides improved hardware and software features that answer the pharmaceutical industry’s demand for an efficient and robust prep SFC system.”

“Working with the Enabling Technologies Consortium, and hearing the voice of the pharmaceutical industry, has been an incredibly valuable learning experience for us at Shimadzu,” said Patrick Fromal, VP Sales, Shimadzu Scientific Instruments.

ETC is a forum for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to discuss ideas, share information and collaborate on the development of new enabling technologies.

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