August 23, 2010
Asahi Kasei Kuraray Medical Co., Ltd.
Asahi Kasei Medial Co., Ltd.
Establishment of new R&D facility for medical materials
— raising competitiveness with advanced materials technology for medical applications —
Asahi Kasei Kuraray Medical and Asahi Kasei Medical will together establish a new facility in Nobeoka, Miyazaki, Japan, for R&D on materials for medical applications.
This new facility will facilitate R&D under a new configuration which extends across the two companies, building on their respective technologies related to hollow-fiber membranes and selective adsorption media, together with technology for evaluation and analysis of biocompatibility. The advancement of medical materials technology at the new facility will serve as a key element in the development of innovative new medical devices and related technologies by the two companies.
Outline of new R&D facility
| Name: | Medical Material Laboratory |
|---|---|
| Location: | Nobeoka, Miyazaki, Japan |
| Groundbreaking: | November 2010 |
| Completion: | June 2011 |
| Investment: | ≈ ¥1.6 billion |
Medical-related operations are a key strategic focus as growth field under the Asahi Kasei Group’s Growth Action - 2010 mid-term management initiative, with expansion and reinforcement of all phases of domestic and overseas operations, including R&D, production, and sales. Asahi Kasei Kuraray Medical and Asahi Kasei Medical have thus been proactively advancing the development and dissemination of innovative blood-related healthcare systems and nextgeneration bioprocess technologies through a concerted investment of resources.
The new facility will play a leading role in enabling the further development of operations, combining the materials-related R&D functions of the four established businesses-dialyzers, therapeutic apheresis devices, Sepacell™ leukocyte reduction filters, and Planova™ virus removal filters-for the integration and enhancement of overlapping technologies for phaseseparation, structure control, and chemical modification. Accelerating the development of nextgeneration products including hemodialyzer membranes, adsorption columns, and virus filtration membranes, the new facility will enable the two companies to further heighten their technology for biocompatibility evaluation and analysis as well as biological and physicochemical analysis-developing a presence as a center for world-leading medical materials R&D.
