Rigaku and SPERA PHARMA Initiate Strategic Partnership to Advanced Pharmaceutical Development
17.4.2025 18:00:00 EEST | Business Wire | Press release
Rigaku Corporation, a Group company of Rigaku Holdings Corporation (headquarters: Akishima, Tokyo; CEO: Jun Kawakami; hereinafter “Rigaku”), and SPERA PHARMA, Inc. (headquarters: Osaka; President & Representative Director: Keitaro Iwaki; hereinafter “SPERA PHARMA”) have initiated a strategic partnership aimed at accelerating and transforming pharmaceutical development by leveraging the two companies’ cutting-edge technologies and extensive expertise.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250417047994/en/
Left: Keitaro Iwaki, President & Representative Director, SPERA PHARMA; Right: Jun Kawakami, President & CEO, Rigaku
SPERA PHARMA will use XtaLAB Synergy-ED, an integrated platform for electronic diffraction provided by Rigaku, for contract analytical services, thereby offering customers robust support in pharmaceutical development.
The XtaLAB Synergy-ED incorporates 3D ED/MicroED1, which is utilized for the structure analysis of substances, including microscopic crystals and minute quantities of crystalline powder. This sophisticated technology provides sufficiently high resolution to determine atomic-level structures, enabling the detailed elucidation of molecular structures of organic compounds and similar substances.
SPERA PHARMA is currently the world’s only company in the pharmaceutical industry offering contract analytical services with the XtaLAB Synergy-ED. Rigaku will extend technical support to SPERA PHARMA for its contract analytical operations.
Furthermore, the two companies are collaborating closely to advance research utilizing the XtaLAB Synergy-ED and to actively share information on the application methods and analytical technologies.
Through this partnership, Rigaku and SPERA PHARMA aim to provide robust support at the forefront of pharmaceutical development, playing pivotal roles in pioneering the future of medicine.
1: Stands for “Three-Dimensional Electron Diffraction/Microcrystal Electron Diffraction.” A method for analysis of crystalline structures using electronic diffraction.
Example of Joint Research and Use
“Detection of Hydrogen Atoms Using Only 3D ED/MicroED and Contribution to Structure Determining Salts or Cocrystals,” Crystal Growth ＆ Design, 2025, 25, 1, 129–135
URL: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.cgd.4c01421
(Registration required to read.)
About the Rigaku Group
Since its establishment in 1951, the engineering professionals of the Rigaku group have been dedicated to benefiting society with leading-edge technologies, notably including its core fields of X-ray and thermal analysis. With a market presence in over 90 countries and some 2,000 employees from 9 global operations, Rigaku is a solution partner in industry and research analysis institutes. Our overseas sales ratio has reached approximately 70% while sustaining an exceptionally high market share in Japan. Together with our customers, we continue to develop and grow. As applications expand from semiconductors, electronic materials, batteries, environment, resources, energy, life science to other high-tech fields, Rigaku realizes innovations “To Improve Our World by Powering New Perspectives.”
For details, please visit rigaku-holdings.com/english
About SPERA PHARMA
SPERA PHARMA was established in July 2017 in the Juso area of Yodogawa-ku, Osaka. It is a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) specializing in Chemistry, Manufacturing and Controls (CMC) pharmaceutical sciences, including process chemistry, formulation development, and analytical development, as well as the manufacturing of investigational drugs. The company’s expert research team, which has extensive experience and proven results, works flexibly in all phases of pharmaceutical development from the early stage to final drug application. SPERA PHARMA is a one-stop provider of comprehensive services and solutions to meet customer needs. For further information, please visit spera-pharma.co.jp/en
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250417047994/en/
Contacts
Press Contact:
Sawa Himeno
Head of Communications Dept., Rigaku Holdings Corporation
prad@rigaku.co.jp
+81 90 6331 9843
Ayako Tsuboi
Marketing Communications, Sales Dept., SPERA PHARMA, Inc.
mkouhou@spera-pharma.co.jp
+81 6-7653-6818
About Business Wire
For more than 50 years, Business Wire has been the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.
www.businesswire.com
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
Sutherland Launches FinAI Hub to Industrialize Agentic AI for Banking and Financial Services6.3.2026 15:00:00 EET | Press release
Today, Sutherland announced the launch of Sutherland FinAI Hub, an enterprise Agentic AI platform built exclusively for Banking and Financial Services. As financial institutions accelerate AI adoption, many initiatives remain confined to pilots, unable to scale across legacy systems and core operations. Sutherland FinAI Hub is designed to help close that gap. FinAI Hub is an innovation ecosystem where Sutherland works with clients to design, prototype, and scale Agentic AI workflows across core operations. At launch, the platform brings together a large and expanding workforce of domain-trained AI agents purpose-built for financial institutions, supporting functions across retail banking, payments, cards, consumer and commercial lending, servicing, back office, risk and compliance functions. These modular agents can operate independently or be orchestrated across end-to-end workflows spanning onboarding, KYC, AML, fraud, underwriting, payments, disputes, servicing, and collections. For
Hytera Announces 450Connect Whitelisting of PNC660 450MHz at MWC 20266.3.2026 14:02:00 EET | Press release
Hytera, a leading global provider of critical communications technologies and solutions, announced that its mission-critical smart device, the PNC660 450MHz, has been granted whitelist certification by 450Connect during the Mobile World Congress 2026 (MWC26), held from March 2 to 5 in Barcelona, Spain. This certification authorizes the device for full commercial deployment across European 450MHz private broadband networks, marking a significant milestone for Hytera in delivering reliable, secure, and robust communication solutions to energy providers and other critical infrastructure sectors. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260305205209/en/ Hytera launches the MCX Smart Device PNC660 450MHz 450Connect is the exclusive licensee and operator of the nationwide 450MHz radio network in Germany and across Europe. Its whitelist program enforces stringent evaluation criteria covering device compatibility, network inte
Smoke Free Sweden: Brussels Warned Against Depriving Women of Best Tool to Quit Smoking6.3.2026 11:28:00 EET | Press release
On International Women’s Day (March 8), health experts are warning EU policymakers not to jeopardise women’s health by restricting or banning nicotine pouches that have helped drive one of the world’s most dramatic declines in female smoking. The warning accompanies the release of Empowerment in a Pouch, a report showing how access to oral, tobacco-free nicotine pouches has accelerated Sweden’s progress towards smoke-free status, particularly among women. European Commission proposals under consideration in the Tobacco Products Directive could reverse this progress if applied across the EU, where more than one in five women still smokes. “Sweden’s experience shows what happens when women are given realistic alternatives to smoking,” said Professor Marewa Glover, behavioural scientist and co-author. “Remove those options and you remove momentum. The danger now is that European policy ignores success and repeats past mistakes.” The report shows that since nicotine pouches became availabl
2PointZero Group Completes Majority Acquisition in Italy-Based ISEM Packaging Group for AED 704 Million5.3.2026 23:02:00 EET | Press release
2PointZero Group PJSC (ADX: 2PointZero), a next-generation investment powerhouse focused on energy and consumer sectors, announced today that it has formally completed the transaction to acquire a majority position in ISEM, a leading European packaging group serving beauty, fashion, luxury, nutraceuticals and more, for AED 704 million through a combination of secondary and primary capital earmarked to accelerate organic and inorganic growth. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260305800523/en/ 2PointZero Group completes majority acquisition in Italy-based ISEM Packaging Group for AED 704 million (Photo: AETOSWire) 2PointZero Group now holds 60.8% of ISEM, while Peninsula Capital and minority investors own the remaining 39.2%. This marks the start of a strategic partnership between 2PointZero and Peninsula. Together, the partners will reinforce ISEM’s leadership position with a focus on category and geographic expa
Xsolla Announces Reseller Program to Help Game Developers Unlock New Revenue Streams in Local Markets5.3.2026 19:00:00 EET | Press release
Xsolla, a leading global video game commerce company, today announced the Xsolla Reseller Program, a new product designed to help game developers scale and capture untapped revenue in local markets with no development needed. The program launches with a curated cohort of resellers and distributors in Southeast Asia and Latin America, with expansion into additional regions throughout 2026. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260305047070/en/ Graphic: Xsolla As game developers pursue global growth, they face a fundamental infrastructure challenge: billions of dollars in revenue remain untapped in emerging, cash-dependent economies, such as Southeast Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and North Africa, where players purchase digital content through local distribution partners. In mature digital economies, developers seek to extend their reach and distribute digital inventory at scale through more partners and chan
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom