What Reach Separations does

Reach Separations is a UK-based specialist chromatography Contract Research Organization (CRO) that provides analysis and purification services for small molecules, with particular strength in chiral separations. Founded in 2011 in Nottingham and now operating as part of the CatSci Group following a June 2024 acquisition backed by Keensight Capital, the company operates laboratory facilities in Nottingham (BioCity) and Strasbourg, France (opened June 2022), with a total headcount of 14 as of 2024. Services span discovery chromatography, large-scale Supercritical Fluid Chromatography (SFC) chiral purification, achiral separations, impurity isolation, and analytical services including Experimental Polar Surface Area (EPSA), ChromLogD, stability studies, and specialized purification of PROTACs/molecular glues, oligonucleotides, and peptides from milligrams to kilograms scale. The core technology platform combines HPLC and SFC side by side, supported by an automated chiral screening system capable of testing 150+ conditions in under 24 hours and achieving a documented 98% chiral separation success rate.

The company's client base exceeds 150 distinct organizations, accumulated over a decade based on signed confidentiality agreements, including pharmaceutical, biotechnology, agrochemical, fine chemical, natural product, and medicinal cannabis companies across the UK and Europe, with occasional engagements in South Africa and South Korea. Reach generates revenue through project-based professional services engagements, with pricing tied to scope and scale rather than disclosed publicly; salaries disclosed for hiring provide some indirect signal (Graduate Chemist at £24-27k, Chromatography Expert at £30-45k). Go-to-market is sales-led via a dedicated business development team (Managing Director, Business Development Director, Global Head of Business Development, and associates) and built on industry conference attendance, scientific content marketing, and supporting partnerships with complementary providers (NMR Peak, MINAKEM, SFE Process, BioTools, University of Southampton Mass Spectrometry, and SIM GmbH in Germany). The June 2024 acquisition by CatSci Ltd is positioned as a strategic move to offer end-to-end separation science support from discovery through to GMP manufacture, with Reach retaining its brand identity and operating model under the CatSci Group.

Name

Reach Separations

Legal name

Reach Separations Ltd

Website

https://reachseparations.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2011

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Reach Separations is a UK-based chromatography CRO specializing in chiral and achiral separations, analytical services, and purification of small molecules, PROTACs, oligonucleotides, and peptides for pharmaceutical, agrochemical, and fine chemical clients across Europe, now operating as part of the CatSci Group.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Pharmaceutical CRO Chromatography Services

NAICS

Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing (334516)

SIC

Services-Misc Health & Allied Services, Nec (8090)

akta.pro primary industry

Chiral / Asymmetric Synthesis & Complex Chemistry Services (HLAGAHAE)

akta.pro secondary industries

Downstream Processing & Purification Technologies (chromatography, filtration, centrifugation) (HLAAAJAB), Analytical Instruments & Chromatography Systems (HLAGAIAA)

Keywords

• Chromatography services
• Chiral separations
• HPLC purification
• SFC purification
• Pharmaceutical CRO

Headquarters

HQ city

Nottingham

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Chromatography Services: CRO services providing chromatography for analysis and purification. Services span discovery chromatography, large-scale SFC chiral purification, impurity isolation, and analytical services. Project-based engagement with pharmaceutical, agrochemical, and fine chemical clients.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Reach Separations provides chromatography services for the analysis and purification of small molecules, combining High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and Supercritical Fluid Chromatography (SFC) platforms. Service offerings include chiral separations, achiral separations, large-scale SFC purification, impurity isolation, and specialized purification for PROTACs, oligonucleotides, and peptides, delivered to pharmaceutical, agrochemical, and fine chemical clients across the UK and Europe.

Product overview

Reach Separations is a chromatography service provider offering a comprehensive suite of separation science services for the pharmaceutical, agrochemical, and fine chemical sectors. The core technology platform combines High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and Supercritical Fluid Chromatography (SFC) techniques. The service portfolio includes: (1) Chiral Separations and Achiral Separations as foundational services; (2) Analytical Services encompassing UHPLC-MS, SFC-MS, QC, EPSA, ChromLogD, and Stability Studies; (3) Specialized Purification services for PROTACs & Molecular Glues (bRo5), Oligonucleotides, and Peptides; and (4) Large Scale purification capabilities for chiral compounds and impurity isolation. Services span from discovery scale (milligrams) through development (kilograms), with facilities in Nottingham, UK and Strasbourg, France.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Chiral Separations Chiral chromatography services for analysis and purification of racemates, ranging from enantiomeric excess (EE) determinations through to purification of hundreds of grams of racemate, utilizing automated screening systems achieving a 98% success rate.
• Achiral Separations LC-MS and SFC-MS analysis, method development, and orthogonal purity analysis including multi-component resolutions, reference standard generation, plate purifications, and single sample purification from 5mg to 500g.
• Analytical Services Suite of analytical services including Waters HClass UPLC, Agilent 1290 UHPLC, Thermo Vanquish UHPLC, Waters UPC2 SFC, Agilent Infinity 2 1260 SFC, and Agilent 8860 GC, with QC via LCMS, EPSA, ChromLogD, and stability studies.
• PROTACs & Molecular Glue Purification Beyond-Rule-of-5 (bRo5) purification services for PROTACs and molecular glues using Supercritical Fluid Chromatography (SFC) and Reverse Phase HPLC, achieving up to 99% purity.
• Oligonucleotide Drug Substances Purification Ion-pair Reverse Phase HPLC purification of oligonucleotide drug substances at scales from milligrams to over 100g, ensuring high purity levels for drug development and commercialization.
• Peptide Purification Peptide purification using HPLC and SFC, achieving purity levels exceeding 98%, with scalable solutions from milligram to kilogram scale in dedicated large-scale laboratory facilities.
• Experimental Polar Surface Area (EPSA) High-throughput SFC-based methodology to measure compound polar surface area, a significant factor in permeability assessment for beyond-Rule-of-5 compounds such as PROTACs and cyclic peptides.
• ChromLogD Lipophilicity measurement using reverse-phase chromatography to simulate octanol/water equilibrium, providing indicative lipophilicity values at various pH levels with high throughput.
• Stability Studies Chemical and chiral stability studies assessing molecule behavior under various temperatures and pH conditions across multiple time points, adapted to match client requirements.
• Large Scale SFC for Chiral Purification Large-scale supercritical fluid chromatography for processing hundreds of grams of racemate per week, utilizing automated evaporation capabilities for chiral scale-up projects.
• Impurity Isolation Isolation of pure samples of unknown impurities from hundreds of grams of crude material, including elucidation packages with MS-MS and NMR data through partner collaborations.

Quantifiable outcome

• Samples returned within 5 working days for quantities of 5g or less
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered core and supporting.

• CatSci LtdcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 24 June 2024CatSci Ltd acquired Reach Separations in June 2024, creating an integrated separation science offering. The acquisition enables end-to-end coverage from discovery through to GMP manufacture, combining Reach's chromatography expertise with CatSci's CMC capabilities. Reach operates as part of the CatSci Group while maintaining its brand identity.
• CatSci LtdcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 28 November 2023Prior to acquisition, CatSci and Reach announced a strategic partnership in November 2023 to offer end-to-end analytical support from discovery to manufacture. The partnership provided customers access to Reach's expert automated chromatography capabilities combined with CatSci's GMP method development and validation services.
• NMR PeaksupportingImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerNMR Peak, founded by Torren Peakman in 2011, offers small molecule NMR expertise including structure determination and physical properties measurement for pharmaceutical and biotech clients. Supports Reach's impurity isolation services with NMR characterization.
• University of Southampton Mass Spectrometry FacilitysupportingTechnology or IntegrationDr Julie Herniman and Professor John Langley head up the facility providing mass spectrometry expertise. Combined nearly 60 years of chromatography and mass spectrometry experience supporting industry clients.
• BiotoolssupportingTechnology or IntegrationBioTools provides VCD (Vibrational Circular Dichroism) for chiral structural elucidation. Life sciences structural characterisation company providing molecular structure information for chiral small molecules.
• MINAKEMsupportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerMINAKEM specializes in APIs, HPAPIs and CMC commercial custom manufacturing with cGMP capabilities. Has 50, 110, and 300mm HPLC columns for GMP high potent purification, supporting scale-up from Reach's services.
• SFE ProcesssupportingTechnology or IntegrationSFE Process provides Supercritical Fluid Extraction equipment. Partnership established for offering purification of extracts by SFC and supporting production scale SFC. The instrument can operate with 100% CO2 and utilises a recycle loop for green chemistry.
• SIM GmbHsupportingChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorSIM GmbH is a partner company in Germany for SFC and analytical Prep SFC. Stéphane Dubant supported SIM at Analytica 2024 conference in Munich to discuss SFC capabilities.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Eurofins Scientific: Global CRO/testing giant with broad chromatography, chiral and analytical services across pharma and chemicals; competes with Reach as a one-stop-shop incumbent, offering Reach's capabilities within a much wider service portfolio.
• Hovione: CDMO with strong chiral chemistry and API manufacturing expertise; comparable to Reach on chiral small-molecule work and partner MINAKEM-style scale-up, but with integrated GMP manufacturing and a global footprint.
• Sai Life Sciences: Global CRO/CDMO providing discovery chemistry, chromatography and process R&D to pharma and biotech; comparable to Reach on small-molecule separations and chiral services, with broader CMC and manufacturing scope.
• Phenomenex (Danaher): Major chromatography columns and consumables provider, now part of Danaher, with growing services and applications support; adjacent competitor on chiral and SFC method development serving overlapping pharma customers.
• Charles River Laboratories: Large discovery and development CRO offering chemistry, chromatography and purification services; overlaps with Reach on pharma/biotech discovery clients and bundles similar capabilities into integrated programmes.

Others

• Waters Corporation: Leading chromatography and SFC instrument manufacturer whose hardware and software underpin Reach's laboratory; an enabler/ecosystem participant rather than a direct competitor, and historically connected to founder Peter Ridgway's career at Thar/Waters.

Direct peers

• Sygnature Discovery: UK-based discovery CRO serving pharma and biotech clients with medicinal chemistry, in vitro biology and DMPK; highly comparable to Reach in geography, customer mix (UK/European pharma, virtual pharma) and outsourcing model.
• Chiral Technologies (Daicel): Global leader in chiral chromatography columns, services and screening; the most direct competitor on chiral separations, with overlapping customers in pharma and agrochemicals and a similar focus on chiral method development and screening scale.
• Hichrom: UK-based chromatography specialist providing HPLC columns, method development and analytical services; comparable to Reach on chromatography expertise and UK/European pharma customer base, though more focused on column products.
• Sepiatec: Specialist in preparative SFC systems and SFC-based purification services; competes head-to-head with Reach on SFC-driven chiral and achiral purification for drug discovery and process development customers.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/reachseparation
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/reach-separations

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles7 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Reach Separations