Inside Instrumentation

Counterfeit Drug Detector Debuts

Analytical Spectral Devices (ASD) is launching a portable near-infrared spectroscopic device, called RxSpec 700Z, for real-time detection of counterfeit drugs. Two years ago, the Boulder, Colo.-based company developed a similar technology for laboratory operation by mail-order pharmacies. The new briefcase-sized RxSpec unit is designed for use by pharmaceutical companies, inspectors, investigators, and others in the field. "Drug counterfeiting is a growing problem," says ASD's CEO Dave Rzasa. "The RxSpec 700Z is a tool that fits the FDA's call for applying new technologies to distinguish legitimate drugs from counterfeits."

Syrris expands flow reactor unit

(1) Syrris, based in Royston, England, has introduced two new modules for its AFRICA (automated flow reaction incubation and control apparatus) system. The modular flow chemistry system is designed for compound library synthesis or reaction optimization, reagent screening, and other studies. The company says the new reagent injection and product collection modules allow for more fully automated synthesis and improved throughput.

Thermo Fisher buys separations company

Thermo Fisher has acquired Massachusetts-based Cohesive Technologies, a manufacturer of sample extraction and liquid chromatography products with approximately $15 million in annual revenues. Cohesive provides Thermo Fisher with in-line sample preparation capabilities that couple with mass spectrometry for pharmaceutical and other organic analyses. The new products, which are aimed at the pharmaceutical, clinical, environmental, and food science industries, will improve sample throughput and detection limits during LC/MS analysis, according to Thermo Fisher.

Avantium launches Flowrence

Avantium Technologies is offering Flowrence, a new flow reactor system for high-throughput, fixed-bed catalyst testing. Using the system, researchers can test 16 heterogeneous catalysts in parallel at small scale in gas-phase, liquid-phase, or trickle-flow reactions. The system was developed by using "nanoflow" technology originating at Shell Chemicals, one of Avantium's original shareholders, and then transferred to Avantium with its creation in 2000. After operating for about five years largely as a service provider, the Amsterdam-based company created its Avantium Tools business in 2005 to commercialize its proprietary, in-house research systems. It has supplied the first Flowrence systems to major oil and petrochemical companies in Europe and the U.S.

Agilent picks up instruments

(2) Agilent Technologies has acquired a line of chemiluminescence products from General Electric Analytical Instruments, a division of GE Water & Process Technologies. As part of the deal, Agilent receives intellectual property, sales, marketing, and manufacturing assets. Agilent will offer the sulfur and nitrogen detectors as accessories for its gas chromatographs. The detectors are targeted to the energy and petrochemical industries. Separately, Agilent also closed a deal on Acqiris, a privately held company based in Geneva, Switzerland, that provides high-speed digitizers and analyzers. Financial details were not disclosed for either deal.

PerkinElmer acquires new products

(3) Last month, PerkinElmer inked a deal with Euroscreen S.A. to acquire its subsidiary, Euroscreen Products, based in Gosselies, Belgium. Euroscreen Products is a major supplier of biological assays, including ones for G-protein-coupled receptors. Combined with PerkinElmer's recent acquisition of Evotec Technologies, this purchase expands PerkinElmer's portfolio of high-content screening technologies for the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter. In addition, PerkinElmer picked up a line of thermal analysis instruments from U.K.-based Triton Technology. The products, including the DMA8000 (shown), are used in the polymer, pharmaceutical, and food industries for analytical applications ranging from quality control to research.