R&D 100 Award Goes to Waters ACQUITY UPC2 System

MILFORD, Mass., July 29, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Waters Corporation (NYSE: WAT) today announced that R&D Magazine recognized the Waters^® ACQUITY UPC^2™ System as one of "the 100 most technologically significant products introduced into the marketplace over the past year."  

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The ACQUITY UPC²  System is the first in a new class of separations tools based on the technology of UltraPerformance Convergence Chromatography™ (UPC²). As an orthogonal technique to LC and GC, the ACQUITY UPC² System is an efficient, robust, and reliable technique that employs compressed carbon dioxide, rather than organic solvents, as the primary mobile phase constituent and thus is a greener alternative for many applications – both chiral and achiral – across many industries.

"We are tremendously proud that the ACQUITY UPC² System was recognized by the R&D Magazine 51st annual R&D 100 Awards," said Art Caputo, President, Waters Division.  "Since its introduction, ACQUITY UPC² adoption spans all the markets we serve – including pharmaceuticals, food, environmental, chemical materials, and clinical research applications.  More than ever, we are confident that ACQUITY UPC² is a broad-based, complementary analytical platform that is taking its place alongside of liquid and gas chromatography as one of the three essential separation technologies for modern laboratory analysis."

Prior awards earned by the ACQUITY UPC² System include the 2012 Pittcon Editors Gold Award for best new product, SelectScience.net Scientists' Choice Award for Best New Separations product of 2012, and the Green Innovation Trophy at the 1st Innovation Awards 2013 at Forum LABO& BIOTECH.

About Waters ACQUITY UPC² System

UPC² Technology is based on the principles of UltraPerformance Convergence Chromatography which employs compressed carbon dioxide as the primary mobile phase constituent. The instrument is based on the robust, reliable low-dispersion design of the Waters ACQUITY UPLC^® platform perfected for use with sub-two-micron particle technology.

The technique is suitable for a diverse range of compounds including most organic-soluble compounds, most salts of organic acids and bases, small lipophilic peptides and non-polar solutes.  It is ideal for structurally similar compounds including chiral entities, diastereomers, enantiomers, positional isomers and structural analogs. Essentially any compound soluble in an organic solvent is a candidate for convergence chromatography. The technique is also compatible with many popular detection modes including the full range of Waters mass spectrometers.

Laboratories purchasing the ACQUITY UPC² System are finding it to be ideally suited for chiral separations and a welcome replacement for solvent-hungry normal phase LC.

Helping Laboratories Meet Their Sustainability Objectives.

Laboratory-dependent organizations can consume large amounts of organic solvents that are expensive to purchase and can be twice as expensive to dispose of. Many of these organizations have set aggressive sustainability goals for themselves and are investigating the potential of Waters UPC² Technology to help meet them and, in turn, save hundreds of thousands of dollars over time.

For these reasons, interest in the technology is especially intense among firms with large laboratory operations.  In a videotaped interview, Daniel Zimmerli, a senior scientist in the Pharmaceuticals Division at J. Hoffman-LaRoche (Basel, Switzerland) talked about the potential of UPC² Technology to cut solvent usage and, in his estimation, replace normal phase LC in "3 to 5 years".

Technological innovation, and the growth of corporate sustainability initiatives, has played a significant role in the renewed interest in SFC and convergence chromatography. A recent article on UPC² in Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News reported that the carbon footprint for manufacturing acetonitrile is substantial. With acetonitrile, a common LC solvent, costing between $300 - $400/four-liter bottle - and more than twice that to dispose of - organizations are taking a second look at their consumption of organic solvents in the laboratory. Carbon dioxide on the other hand is extracted from the atmosphere and vented to it after use. As the article states, carbon dioxide is the "greenest HPLC solvent, hands down."

Since the award competition began in 1962, Waters has won six previous R&D 100 awards for its M6000 HPLC Pump, U6K Injector, High Temperature Gel Permeation Chromatograph, Radial Compression Module, Oasis 96-Well (micro)Elution Extraction Plate, and the ACQUITY UPLC System.

About the R&D 100 Awards

Now in its 51^st year, the annual R&D 100 award competition conducted by R&D Magazine honors 100 of the most technologically significant products introduced during the previous 12 months. To qualify, winning products or processes must have been available for sale or licensing during the calendar year preceding the judging. Winners are chosen by an independent panel of experts.

Over the years, the R&D 100s have recognized winning products with such household names as Polacolor film (1963), the flashcube (1965), the automated teller machine (1973), the halogen lamp (1974), the fax machine (1975), the liquid crystal display (1980), the touch-sensitive screen and color graphics printer (1986), the Kodak Photo CD (1991), the Nicoderm antismoking patch (1992), the digital compact cassette (1993), Taxol anticancer drug (1993), and the Power Beat automotive battery (1994).

R&D Magazine will profile the winners and their products in its September/October issue and celebrate their achievements during a ceremony on November 7 in Orlando, FL.

About Waters Corporation (www.waters.com)

For more than 50 years, Waters Corporation has created business advantages for laboratory-dependent organizations by delivering practical and sustainable innovation to enable significant advancements in such areas as healthcare delivery, environmental management, food safety, and water quality worldwide.

Pioneering a connected portfolio of separations science, laboratory information management, mass spectrometry and thermal analysis, Waters technology breakthroughs and laboratory solutions provide an enduring platform for customer success.

With revenue of $1.84 billion in 2012, Waters is driving scientific discovery and operational excellence for customers worldwide.

Waters, UPC², UltraPerformance Convergence Chromatography, ACQUITY and UPLC are trademarks of Waters Corporation.

SOURCE Waters Corporation