Separator

Orochem Technologies: Paving the Route for Nutraceutical Healthcare

Separator
Dr. Asha Oroskar,President & CEO

Dr. Asha Oroskar

President & CEO

Earlier this decade, the nutraceutical market was in a relatively nascent phase, evaluated at $142.1 billion in 2011 by Transparency Market Research. With the increasing occurrence of lifestyle diseases on one side, and improved discovery, trial and manufacturing techniques on the other, the nutraceutical arena has been mushrooming, estimated to hit the $204.8 billion mark by 2017. Techniques such as High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC),Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), and Mass Spectrometry, have become more than necessary to expedite the lifecycle from drug discovery to mass production. Orochem Technologies is a company that is perfectly positioned to expedite this cycle. It has deep expertise in utilizing the nature of APIs with chromatographic separation properties of associated mobile and stationary phases. Orochem has carved a niche for itself by providing purification solutions for nutraceutical and pharmaceutical molecules. "At Orochem, we help our customers in the development and economical implementation of scalable nutraceutical workflows from drug discovery to the delivery cycle," says Dr.Asha Oroskar,
President and CEO, Orochem.

Globally recognized in the areas of large-scale contract purification, Original Equipment Manufacturing (OEM), sample preparation products and private labeling, the Orochem brand value is built upon a solid groundwork of its collaborative team that constitutes chemists and chemical engineers to develop purification solutions for its customers. The company's flagship service, revolving around deploying Simulated Moving Bed (SMB) processes, advocates toward the replacement of traditional batch-mode multi-step liquid-liquid extraction and crystallization steps. "Clinical diagnostics, nutraceutical and pharmaceutical companies, and contract manufacturers are reaping the benefits of reduced costs of large scale production, process time and labor costs, and optimal levels of product purity, by leveraging our highly productive automation controls," adds Asha.

When addressing a contract purification engagement, Orochem's dedicated team begins with analyzing the customer's unique requirements and objectives of the project, such as the desired purity standards and the scale for mass production. "For instance, we have customers who wanted to purify certain fatty acids from a particular oil," illustrates Asha. "Post which, customers provide us with the feed stock and any other physic ochemicals pertaining to the product."Orochem's team of chemists and mass spectrometrists then proceeds with the analytical method development and sorbent screening procedures, which is then fast tracked into lab scale process development.
Once the lab scale product is developed to standard, the client receives the sample for testing purposes and a plan for scale up. "Based on customers' budgets and end goal, we start the pilot scale, by assisting them to optimize and validate the process at this step," explains Asha. "We study the customers' manufacturing sites, environmental constraints, supply chains, and finalize the commercial scale plant and process." The customer's provisions for manufacture, installation, quality control, and onsite training are supervised and configured by Orochem's teams.

Orochem has successfully executed several key projects, in record time with improved accuracy and significant savings throughout the process chain. Asha extols that it was Orochem's SMB technology that underpinned the purification project of fatty acids, namely EPA and DHA, from fish oil, now widely used in pharmaceutical and food applications. The company also has dedicated wings for the OEM of chromatography columns and proteomics products used in immunoaffinity purification.

Aiming at an IPO in the near future, Orochem is all set to ascend to the leadership spot in molecular purification of nutraceutical and pharmaceutical products. "We will continue to improve our analytical techniques and methodologies to facilitate rapid and efficient discovery processes. This will lead to environmentally safe industrial purification of a broad range of molecules," assures Asha.