Agilent acquires assets of Aurora

SANTA CLARA, Calif.—Agilent Technologies Inc. hasacquired the assets of Aurora SFC Systems Inc., a leading provider ofsupercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) products for laboratoryresearch and analysis, which includes the Aurora SFC Systemsproduct line as well as intellectual property. Financial details werenot disclosed.

Agilent notes that Aurora SFC Systems has been a "partner" to Agilent for the past twoyears, but their professional interactions go back to at least March 2009, when Agilent announced it was providing technical supportfor the development of the Aurora SFC Fusion A5TM, a then-new analyticalinstrument that converts existing high-performance liquid chromatography(HPLC) systems into SFC systems.

Currently, Aurora's Fusion A5 platform is embedded into Agilent's SFC andHybrid SFC/UHPLC systems, and is also sold as part of an upgrade optionto Agilent's 1100, 1200 and 1260 Series LC systems. Acquiring the AuroraSFC assets now enables Agilent to offer these products as fullyintegrated, single-vendor SFC solutions, Agilent notes.

Supercritical fluid chromatography is a normal-phase technique thatprovides different selectivity compared to reversed phase ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC)separation. SFC is used for a broad range of applications, includingseparation of chiral compounds, detection of impurities inpharmaceutical samples, determination of additives and migrationproducts in consumer goods and more. SFCis said to represent a generic, cost-effective alternative to HPLC, providingresults faster and with superior resolution. SFC is also known as agreen technique that minimizes the consumption of organic solvents andavoids generating large amounts of toxic waste, Agilent maintains.

"We valued the partnership we had with Aurora SFC Systems and areexcited to bring this technology and expertise into Agilent," saidPatrick Kaltenbach, vice president and general manager of Agilent'sLiquid Phase Separations Business. "The deployment of orthogonalseparation techniques has gained significant importance in liquid phaseseparations as regulatory agencies increasingly demand comprehensiveresults."

Aurora SFC Systems, a privately held company, was founded in 2007. Itwas headquartered in Redwood City, Calif., with a second location inToughkenamon, Pa.