About Rigaku
Company Background
Since its inception in 1951, Rigaku Corporation has built upon experience to develop innovative solutions and is credited with hundreds of major innovations. Rigaku Analytical Devices was founded in 2011 to focus on furthering the portable Raman space in response to a growing demand for higher performance, more capable analyzers. As the first company to introduce 1064nm laser excitation in a handheld platform, we have lead the technology push to provide the industry’s widest range of Raman-active materials from a handheld and portable analyzer available on the market.
Markets Served
Rigaku Analytical Devices provides GMP-ready handheld Raman instruments to pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical and chemical manufacturers. Applications include raw material verification and finished product authentication to ensure product quality and consumer safety. Our instruments also serve the changing needs of life science and academic laboratories by enabling a modern and collaborative approach to scientific research, analysis and integrated lab-lecture learning environments.
Products, Services, and Capabilities
Leading the evolution of handheld spectroscopy, Progeny remains the first handheld Raman analyzer designed to be customizable and flexible for seamless integration into any work environment. Redesigned from the ground up, it delivers the industry’s most comprehensive and accurate materials identification, improved ease of use, adaptability and reliability. At Progeny’s core is an advanced 1064nm optical engine offering benchtop quality analytical performance in a rugged, ergonomic and IP-68 sealed device. Progeny’s fully customizable workflow software is 21 CFR Part 11 compliant and boasts a smartphone-inspired user interface shortening the learning curve, allowing rapid implementation of material ID methods, and significantly improving return on investment. In addition, Progeny’s ergonomic design means that measurements can be taken directly through sealed plastic packaging within warehouse drums in a matter of seconds; thus decreasing materials acceptance time while reducing the risk of cross-contamination.
From molecular structure to quality assurance
In medicine, biotechnology and pharmacology, drug discovery is the process by which drugs are discovered and designed. In the recent past, most drugs have been discovered either by identifying the active ingredient from traditional remedies or by serendipitous discovery. A new approach, using so-called "rational drug design", has been to understand how disease and infection are controlled at the molecular and physiological level and to target specific entities based on this knowledge. Given this importance, Rigaku has been at the forefront in the development of single crystal diffraction for both macromolecular and small molecule structure determination. Rigaku products range from automated crystallization and crystal imaging through crystal diffraction screening and high-resolution data collection systems to 3D structure refinement and imaging software.
X-ray powder diffraction is extensively used in the drug discovery, design, development and formulation processes to obtain critical knowledge about pharmaceutical products. Many parameters required by the FDA, legal patent issues and drug performance are only accessible by employing XRD. With the introduction of systems specifically developed with the pharmaceutical industry in mind, XRD is now both cost-effective and easy-to-use. Phase analysis and polymorph identification are common analytical needs within both pharmaceutical development and production. In addition, crystal structure determination, the study of non-ambient behavior, and overall morphology help to provide a complete understanding of the properties of a pharmaceutical agent.