Rigaku and SPERA PHARMA Initiate Strategic Partnership to Advanced Pharmaceutical Development
17.4.2025 17:00:00 CEST | 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/
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
FlightSafety International Receives FAA Approval for Virtual Aircraft Preflight Inspection with Evaluation Mode6.5.2026 16:05:00 CEST | Press release
Three aircraft programs approved, with three more expected to receive approval in 2026 FlightSafety International Inc., the global leader in aviation training and simulation technology, today announced it has received Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval for Virtual Aircraft Preflight Inspection (VAPI) with Evaluation Mode for three aircraft training programs: the Embraer EMB-550, Gulfstream G500/G600, and Citation Latitude. This innovative capability allows pilots in initial training to complete a 3D virtual aircraft preflight inspection while in Training Mode, with the added ability to transition directly into the flight deck, followed by Evaluation Mode, that allows pilots to do their preflight check ride portion. “VAPI represents a meaningful advancement in training innovation,” said David Penney, VP of Safety, Courseware and Regulatory Affairs, FlightSafety International. “By leveraging an immersive 3D environment, it offers pilots a more engaging and practical way to de
Riskified Unveils Next-Generation AI Suite at Ascend 2026, Empowering Merchants with Unprecedented Visibility and Control Over Ecommerce Risk6.5.2026 15:00:00 CEST | Press release
New capabilities include Riskified ARIA the AI Risk Analyst, Identity Explore 2.0, and an enhanced Decision Studio, giving merchants the power to see, understand, and act on network risk intelligence like never before Riskified (NYSE: RSKD), a global leader in ecommerce fraud and risk intelligence, today announced a major leap forward in its AI platform capabilities, introducing a powerful suite of control and empowerment tools designed to give merchant fraud teams complete visibility into risk patterns and identity behavior, conversational AI-driven insights, and the ability to surgically tailor their risk strategies. The innovation suite was announced onstage at Ascend 2026, Riskified’s premier global summit series, taking place May 4-6, 2026, at the Conrad New York Downtown in Manhattan, NY. With global ecommerce continuing to expand and losses from AI-driven fraud attacks projected to spike, particularly with the rise of agentic commerce, where AI bots may conduct transactions on b
Twilio’s Next Generation Platform: An Infrastructure Layer for Every Conversation in the Agentic Era6.5.2026 15:00:00 CEST | Press release
New platform capabilities orchestrate context-rich conversations with persistent memory across multiple channels for humans and AI agentsConversation Memory, Conversation Orchestrator, Conversation Intelligence, and Agent Connect provide the nervous system for modern customer engagement Twilio (NYSE: TWLO), the infrastructure for customer engagement in the AI era, kicked off its user conference, SIGNAL, by unveiling its next generation platform capabilities for the agentic era. Generally available today, Conversation Memory, Conversation Orchestrator, Conversation Intelligence, and Agent Connect combine to turn disparate interactions into continuous, intelligent, and personal conversations across humans, agents, and systems. “The agentic era is here. Agents are joining conversations alongside the people they represent, and modern customer engagement requires an infrastructure that serves both equally,” said Khozema Shipchandler, Chief Executive Officer at Twilio. “Twilio’s new platform
Vultr, SUSE & Supermicro Debut Unified Cloud-to-Edge Architecture for Global AI Scaling6.5.2026 14:00:00 CEST | Press release
The strategic partnership bridges the gap between regional cloud and the far edge, combining ruggedized hardware and GitOps-driven Kubernetes to streamline large-scale AI deployments Vultr, the world's largest privately-held cloud infrastructure company, in collaboration with SUSE and Supermicro, today announces a strategic architectural framework designed to solve the complexities of deploying and operating AI workloads across distributed environments. As AI moves closer to the point of data creation - from manufacturing floors to retail storefronts - organizations face significant challenges in latency, cost and operational consistency. This joint initiative provides a seamless, Cloud-to-Edge pipeline that integrates high-performance hardware, localized cloud infrastructure, and unified Kubernetes management. The partnership addresses the reality that sending all data back to a central cloud is no longer viable for real-time AI. The solution breaks down the infrastructure into three
Waiv Enters Collaboration with Daiichi Sankyo to Deliver AI-Derived Biomarkers for ADC Program6.5.2026 14:00:00 CEST | Press release
Waiv, formerly Owkin Dx, to leverage its digital pathology platform encompassing foundation models and AI methodology for ADC biomarker discovery program Waiv, formerly Owkin Dx, a Paris-based company catalyzing AI precision testing, today announced it has entered a collaboration with Daiichi Sankyo (TSE: 4568) to lead digital pathology biomarker discovery for an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) program. With deep expertise across diverse pathology and multimodal data, and a global data network spanning academic institutions, hospitals, and laboratories, Waiv has a proven track record delivering AI-powered biomarker solutions across the full drug development lifecycle. Under the collaboration, Waiv will apply its end-to-end computational pathology platform to early phase data. This includes tumor microenvironment (TME) analysis across both hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) and immunohistochemistry (IHC) stained samples, as well as biomarker discovery and outcome prediction capabilities aimed at
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