Thesis Chemistry, LLC. Contact @ Thesis Chemistry, LLC John R. Peterson, CEO & President Phone: +1 216 229 1640 Fax: +1 216 229 1641 E-mail: jpeterson@thesischemistry.com Web: www.thesischemistry.com	Contact @ Daicel Chemical Industries, Ltd. Takeshi Matsumoto, Ph.D. General Manager, CPI Company Phone: +81 3 3507 3190 Fax: +81 3 3507 3198 E-mail: tk-matsu@daicel.co.jp Web: www.daicel.co.jp/cpi/

The Daicel Chiral Pharmaceutical Ingredients Company (CPI), a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Daicel Chemi-cal Industries Ltd., is hoping to leverage its ability to attack a chiral separation from several angles in order to carve out a space in the US pharmaceuticals market. To accelerate its move into the US, the company recently signed on with Mentor, Ohio-based Thesis Chemistry LLC, which is serving as CPI's marketing representative in the US.

The four cornerstones of Daicel CPI's business are raw materials, custom synthesis, bioprocessing, and chi-ral separation. Daicel CPI's strengths in bioprocessing and chiral separation include proprietary cloned enzyme libraries and chiral stationary phase (CSP) libraries, as well as manufacturing capabilities to sup-port bench-to-commercial scale production of chiral chemicals by bioproduction and simulated moving bed (SMB) chromatography.

The company's US operations include Exton, Pa.-based Chiral Technologies Inc. and Thesis Chemistry, LLC. Though Daicel had been active in the US market for more than a decade, the focus was primarily on chiral separation, says John Peterson, CEO and president of Thesis. "Historically, the bioprocessing and chemical synthesis components of the business have been largely devoted to supporting the Japanese pharma industry and the provision of chiral synthons to the global pharma industry," he notes. "Daicel CPI intends to expand its presence in the Western market with contract bioprocessing and chemical synthesis, in addition to continuing to build its predominant position in chiral separation."

Daicel CPI recognized the challenges of expanding into a new market, and chose Thesis to take on project procurement and management.

Since teaming up with Thesis, Daicel CPI has already begun to make strides in bolstering its presence in the US. "We now have two projects running in Japan already. We have a number of opportunities on the table," says Mr. Peterson.

In attracting more business in the US, Thesis has been underscoring the company's broad technology base and how this differentiates it from its competitors. Daicel CPI can approach a chiral resolution from two directions, bioprocessing or separation, which "increases the probability of success in bringing a compound to market," says Mr. Peterson.

Daicel CPI performs all of its chemical and bioprocess work at its Arai site in Japan, where it can make up to hundreds of ton quantities of material, while research and development is accomplished at its Tsukuba Research Center. Daicel CPI says the chiral separation services segment, which evolved out of Daicel's long history in cellulose chemistry, is the most rapidly growing component. Currently, Daicel CPI's SMB phases are used by every company active in pharmaceutical SMB separations, notes Mr. Peterson.

"Daicel's strength in this area is in combining their chemistry [expertise] with their stationary phases," he adds. "There are literally hundreds of stationary phases that they've developed or are planning to develop."

CPI continues to strengthen its capabilities by continuous reinvestment in its technology. The company is currently developing more CSPs, particularly those with high productivity factors, and additional stationary phases outside of its cellulose-based offerings, while also investing to expand its enzyme library.

The company also plans to add SMB capacity and additional chemical and bioprocess plant improvements to handle the increase in business from the West.

Daicel CPI was established two years ago, when Daicel merged its custom synthesis and raw materials businesses in an effort to offer customers a complete package of chiral solutions. The company is one of three businesses that comprise Daicel's organic chemistry division, which overall accounted for 27 percent of the $1.96 billion in revenues in 2002