BEHIND THE SCIENCE

 

Kanto Center 2 of NX WANBISHI ARCHIVES CO., LTD. (hereinafter NX WANBISHI) is a data solutions business located in Ogawa Town, Saitama Prefecture, Japan. Established in 1966, their mission is to store and protect valuable information for their clients including confidential documents, drug development materials, historical materials for permanent preservation, tapes and other recording media, digital data, etc. In 2015, they expanded their business to include cell and sample storage--dedicating an entire building to it.

 

PHCbi brand ultra-low temperature freezers, biomedical freezers, and pharmaceutical refrigerators are making a major contribution to NX WANBISHI's mission. We spoke to Mr. Terukazu Kobayashi and Mr. Nao Tamada, supervisors at the Frozen Cell Storage Business Promotion Office, to learn more about their cell and sample storage facility which houses approximately 100 PHCbi brand products. About 80% of the materials stored there are human cells or samples and the remaining 20% include raw materials for pharmaceutical products or investigational drugs.

 

NX WANBISHI selected PHCbi brand products following detailed research and interviews with their customers. "We carried out a detailed comparison with the competitors, looking at price, equipment performance, maintenance service, power consumption, and heat dissipation. One of the things we found was that PHCbi [brand] products not only experienced fewer failures, but if anything did ever happen the company has an excellent support system. Another thing was that in interviews with customers, PHCbi was rated highest for reliability and performance," pointed out Mr. Tamada.

 

The dual cooling system helps mitigate risk and provides reassurance. NX WANBISHI is already looking to the future. Their goal is to focus their efforts on the storage of biopharmaceuticals (which have seen increased production in recent years) and enter the field of regenerative medicine. "We are aiming to obtain a manufacturing and distribution license for regenerative medicine products and for this we are looking at installing equipment such as biological safety cabinets. We are hoping to move forward with the preparations in consultation with PHCbi." stated Mr. Kobayashi.