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Founding
Sepragen was founded in 1985 by Vinit Saxena, inventor of Radial Flow Chromatography, an innovative design column that enables 4 - 10X the flow rates when compared with conventional means. Sepragen’s product line found early acceptance at the lab scale and was rapidly scaled up in the plasma industry which incorporated large Radial Flow, Superflo Columns into the plasma fractionation process where large volumes and slow flow rates had resulted in chronic low productivity and long process times. Companies such as Baxter, Grifols and Octapharma were early adopters of this new technology and were able to increase their throughput several times in existing facilities by employing Sepragen’s technology.
1990s
In the 1990s as the biotech industry started to use Radial Flow Columns and scale up their processes. Sepragen developed the Wedge column to provide a scale up/ scale down tool for customers using Superflo Columns. Sepragen also developed the Quantasep chromatography systems, initially for the bench scale use with fast Superflo columns which enabled our customers to automate their processes with a unique point and click P&ID that provided the industry’s most user friendly software for process development and scale up. These systems were scaled up in the late 1990s to the intermediate pilot systems to 5 Liters per minute and then soon enough to production scale systems with flow rates of up to 40 liters per min. Custom capabilities to operate in hazardous environment were added.
Early 2000s
In the early 2000s the Quantasep software was enhanced to be 21 CFR part 11 compliant and extensive chromatography analysis capabilities were added along with an explorer type data organization, storage and retrieval system was added. Sepragen also used the Quantasep platform to develop an automated column packing system called the QS Packer which enabled customers to easily automate column packing and bring reproducibility and reliability to a manual process. Sepraprep ion exchange resins were added which enable high throughput at low cost.
Mid 2000s- Present
The mid 2000s also saw Sepragen developing technologies suited to the biotech industry’s changing need for smaller more flexible manufacturing. Sepragen developed an automated buffer dilution system called the QS Diluter which enabled our customers to work with buffer concentrates and do online dilution for large volume buffer usage. The late 2000s have seen the development of single use pre-packed columns, Seprapak. To complement these columns Sepragen has recently introduced the Quantasep 1000 SU, the world’s first bench top chromatography system with a single use removable flow-path. This system will enable our customers’ easy changeover and obviate the need for time consuming, expensive cleaning validation.
Sepragen’s Expanding Presence
Another exciting and concurrent development has been Sepragen’s purchase of Cytobiologics. With this purchase Sepragen is able to provide the industry with a unique and patented, high density, fully aerobic Express Bioreactor with productivity increase of an order of magnitude higher than any comparable technology. Sepragen has also opened a manufacturing facility in India and expanded its footprint to Asia.
Over the course of two decades Sepragen has shown a steadfast commitment to providing innovative solutions to the biotech industry to enable our customers to develop life saving drugs rapidly, reliably and economically. With your valued patronage we will continue to build on this tradition.
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