COMPANY PROFILE / CELL CULTURE TECHNOLOGY
FUJIFILM Wako Pure Chemical
A century-old reagent maker moves into raw materials for manufacturing iPS cell therapies
FUJIFILM Wako Pure Chemical is a broad-line laboratory reagent maker founded in 1922, and a wholly owned subsidiary of FUJIFILM since 2017. In cell culture its role is that of a supplier, selling media, supplements and culture ware to researchers and drug companies. Since 2023 it has gone beyond research-grade products, launching three culture additives made to API GMP standards that can be used in the commercial manufacture of regenerative medicine products made from human iPS cells. Drawing only on the company's own website, corporate profile and news releases, and on the statutory filings of its parent, FUJIFILM Holdings, this profile sets out what the company sells in media and reagents, who it works with and where it is heading.
- FUJIFILM Wako Pure Chemical in 30 seconds, and where it stands in cell culture
- The logo and how the name is written
- Where the company sits in the cell culture landscape
- Scale (reagents, chemicals and diagnostics, in brief)
- Resources committed to cell culture
- What it has done so far
- What comes next
- What the company is aiming for in cell culture
- Map of cell culture partnerships
- Technologies, products and services
- The risks this company carries
- Glossary, references and claim-to-source audit
1. FUJIFILM Wako Pure Chemical in 30 seconds, and where it stands in cell culture
Chemical CorporationThe company's official English name
Osaka, JapanTokyo head office in Nihonbashi-Honcho, Chuo-ku
(media and reagents)No development or contract manufacturing of cell therapies appears in primary sources
¥70.7 billion (53%)Media and culture reagents are part of reagents. No breakdown is published
culture additivesLaunched in 2023, 2025 and 2026
Companies involved in cell culture fall into three broad types: contract development and manufacturing organisations (CDMOs), suppliers of equipment and media, and developers of cell therapies. FUJIFILM Wako Pure Chemical is a supplier, with no secondary type Sourced. Its subsidiary FUJIFILM Wako Bio Solutions provides contract services such as cell-based assays, but it does not manufacture drugs for clients. The company sells into both meanings of "cell culture". (1) For producing biopharmaceuticals such as antibodies, it offers media for CHO and HEK293 cells (products of group company FUJIFILM Biosciences, which it sells in Japan) and custom GMP-grade media. (2) For regenerative medicine, where the cells themselves are the product, it offers iPS cell media and culture additives made to API GMP standards for use in commercial manufacturing. Its strength is that it can bring to culture raw materials the manufacturing control of a chemicals maker that has long produced pharmaceutical raw materials under GMP in its own plants.
2. The logo and how the name is written
The FUJIFILM Wako Pure Chemical website shows FUJIFILM's corporate logo in its header, next to the company's Japanese name.
We have not recreated it with generated imagery; the FUJIFILM corporate logo was taken from that site and is placed here as img/fujifilm_wako_logo.svg.
The company's corporate profile states that FUJIFILM and its logo are registered trademarks of FUJIFILM Corporation.
A note on names: the company began in 1922 as Takeda Chemical Reagents (Takeda Kagaku Yakuhin), became Wako Pure Chemical Industries in 1947, and took its current name, FUJIFILM Wako Pure Chemical Corporation, in 2018. When FUJIFILM rebranded its life sciences companies in June 2025 (FUJIFILM Irvine Scientific became FUJIFILM Biosciences, for example), this company's name did not change. It is a separate company from the U.S. media maker FUJIFILM Biosciences.
Official site: https://www.fujifilm.com/ffwk/ja/about/company-profile3. Where the company sits in the cell culture landscape
The middle column's "sells whichever drug succeeds" fits this company's product range well. Its cell culture pages say it offers everything used across the culture workflow: media, sera, supplements, cell dissociation solutions, preservation solutions, scaffolds and culture ware Sourced. What drives sales is the overall volume of research and manufacturing, not whether any single therapy succeeds.
4. Scale (reagents, chemicals and diagnostics, in brief)
FUJIFILM Wako Pure Chemical is unlisted, and its parent's statutory filings do not report its results separately. Its size can be checked in the company's Corporate Profile 2025 Sourced.
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Head office | 3-1-2 Doshomachi, Chuo-ku, Osaka (Tokyo head office: 2-4-1 Nihonbashi-Honcho, Chuo-ku, Tokyo) |
| Founded | June 1922 |
| Share capital | ¥2,339 million |
| Consolidated revenue | ¥132.3 billion (year to March 2025) |
| Consolidated employees | 2,501 (as of March 2025) |
| Production sites | Tokyo Plant (Kawagoe), Aichi Plant (Toyohashi), Osaka Plant (Amagasaki and Mie), Harima Plant (Ako) |
| R&D and other sites | Materials Development Center, Toda Site, Gunma Site |
| Revenue by business (year to March 2025) | Amount | Share | Main products |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reagents | ¥70.7 billion | 53% | Research reagents for chemistry and life sciences, including cell culture reagents and media for biopharmaceutical manufacturing and cell therapy, plus contract bio services |
| Specialty chemicals | ¥31.9 billion | 24% | Resist and display materials, polymerisation initiators and more |
| Clinical diagnostics | ¥29.7 billion | 23% | Biochemistry and immunoassay reagents and instruments |
Products for cell culture are only part of the ¥70.7 billion reagents business, and how much of that comes from media and culture reagents is not published Not yet confirmed. At the parent, FUJIFILM Holdings, the company's reagents business sits within the "LS Solutions" business, whose total revenue was ¥143.2 billion in the year to March 2026 (up 6.1% year on year). That total also includes other businesses, such as pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and contract research (CRO). The annual securities report (Japan's statutory annual filing) attributes part of LS Solutions' growth to "higher media sales as major pharmaceutical companies used more of our media", but "our" there means the FUJIFILM group as a whole; it says nothing specific about FUJIFILM Wako Pure Chemical's media sales.
5. Resources committed to cell culture
The table shows, for people, money, outside investments and acquisitions, and academic ties, whether each could be confirmed from primary sources.
| Type of resource | What it is | Confirmed? |
|---|---|---|
| People | 2,501 consolidated employees (as of March 2025). Any dedicated cell culture or media organisation, and its headcount, is not disclosed | Partly confirmed |
| Money (facilities) | Owns GMP-grade media manufacturing facilities (powder media at 400 to 1,000 kg per batch, liquid media at 100 to 1,500 L per batch, aseptically filled bags of 5 to 20 L and 200 L). The amount invested is not disclosed | Facilities confirmed; amount not confirmed |
| Money (R&D) | The company's own R&D spending is not disclosed | Not confirmed |
| Outside investments and acquisitions | 2015: made Shibayagi a subsidiary (now the Gunma Site). 2019: merged with IS Japan (now the Toda Site). 2019: set up a contract services subsidiary. A past FUJIFILM article on an investment in a maker of media supplements is not used, because its text could no longer be confirmed at the relevant URL | Partly confirmed |
| Universities and research institutes | The subsidiary FUJIFILM Wako Bio Solutions has its head office on the campus of Fukushima Medical University and offers anti-cancer drug assays that use a specialised cancer cell culture method developed by the university's Medical-Industrial Translational Research Center (the company describes itself as a "Fukushima Medical University venture") | Confirmed |
A research reagent and a raw material used in the commercial manufacture of regenerative medicine products face different demands, even when the compound is the same. The company says its GMP-compliant products follow ICH Q7, the international GMP guideline for active pharmaceutical ingredients, with documentation, process validation and analytical validation; that they use no animal-derived raw materials; and that they are tested for viable bacterial count, endotoxin and absence of mycoplasma Sourced. What is really being sold, in other words, is less the compound than a guarantee that the same thing arrives lot after lot.
iPS cells can lose their undifferentiated state, or drift in the direction they differentiate, with slight differences in culture conditions. Lot-to-lot differences in the small molecules used in manufacturing feed straight through into variability in the final product Not yet confirmed. The company's release of GMP versions one compound at a time can be read as a way to let customers carry their research-stage recipes straight into commercial manufacturing. For a company that has long sold reagents to researchers, being able to offer a GMP version of the same compound as a customer's research moves into manufacturing is also a way of keeping that customer.
6. What it has done so far
| When | What happened | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| June 1922 | Founded as Takeda Chemical Reagents, spun out of the chemicals division of Takeda Chobei Shoten (today's Takeda Pharmaceutical) | The starting point as a reagent maker |
| 1947 / 1950 | Renamed Wako Pure Chemical Industries; specialty chemicals business started | Built up technology for making pharmaceutical raw materials and similar products |
| 1974 / 1981 | Local subsidiaries set up in Germany and the U.S. (now FUJIFILM Wako Chemicals Europe and FUJIFILM Wako Chemicals U.S.A.) | Bases for overseas sales |
| 2015 | Shibayagi Co., Ltd. made a subsidiary (now the Gunma Site) | An additional R&D site |
| April 2017 | Acquired by FUJIFILM through a tender offer, becoming a wholly owned FUJIFILM subsidiary | Folded into FUJIFILM's life sciences business |
| 2018 | Renamed FUJIFILM Wako Pure Chemical. In June the same year FUJIFILM acquired the U.S. media maker Irvine Scientific (now FUJIFILM Biosciences) | The group now has two media makers |
| 2019 | Merged with IS Japan Co., Ltd. (now the Toda Site). In February the contract services subsidiary FUJIFILM Wako Bio Solutions was set up, and in April it began anti-cancer drug assay services originating at Fukushima Medical University | Start of contract cell-based assay work |
| May 2023 | Launched the ROCK inhibitor Y-27632, made to API GMP standards | The first additive for commercial iPS cell manufacturing |
| April 2025 | Launched the ALK4/5/7 inhibitor SB431542, made to API GMP standards | The second product |
| 19 January 2026 | Launched the GSK-3β inhibitor CHIR99021, made to API GMP standards | The third product. All three are made at a GMP-equipped plant in Japan |
7. What comes next
manufacture, GMP gradeDescribed as able to make everything from trial to commercial lots
for the year to March 2027Up 7.0% from a restated ¥140.2 billion. Includes pharmaceuticals and more
None of the following appears in primary sources Not yet confirmed.
Sales and growth of media and culture reagents; the plant that makes GMP media and any plans to expand capacity; which customers use the GMP-grade additives; which GMP product comes next; and R&D spending on cell culture. Figures such as media market growth rates quoted in press coverage are not used in this article.
8. What the company is aiming for in cell culture
This section goes beyond what the company says directly. It sets out inferences that can be drawn from primary sources, each with its basis.
| What can be read | Primary evidence behind it | Category |
|---|---|---|
| It wants to keep its research-reagent customers as they move into manufacturing | It lists the research-grade CultureSure series and the GMP-grade products for commercial manufacturing side by side, as the same compounds, with a comparison table | Inference |
| Its main target is iPS cell-based regenerative medicine in Japan | All three GMP-grade products name the commercial manufacture of regenerative medicine products using human iPS cells as their use, and all are made in Japan | Sourced |
| In media for antibody production it assumes a division of labour within the group | It presents CHO, HEK293 and hybridoma media and a media optimisation service as FUJIFILM Biosciences products and collaborations, while itself handling custom GMP-grade media manufacture | Inference |
| Cell culture is still only one part of a pillar within the company | Reagents account for 53% of sales, but no breakdown for media and culture reagents is given, and the corporate profile presents the business as three pillars: reagents, specialty chemicals and clinical diagnostics | Inference |
In its January 2026 release the company published prices for its three GMP-grade products. CHIR99021, for example, costs ¥150,000 for 5 mg and ¥550,000 for 25 mg Sourced. The release positions the three products as "raw materials for regenerative medicine products", and states that they are made at a GMP plant in Japan and tested for viable bacterial count, endotoxin and mycoplasma. The price, then, can be read as covering not just the compound but the quality assurance and documentation needed to build it into a manufacturing process Not yet confirmed. Our reading is that the company's aim in cell culture is not volume but low-volume, high-value raw materials backed by quality assurance that will stand up to regulators.
9. Map of cell culture partnerships
10. Technologies, products and services
| Product or service | Use | What primary sources say |
|---|---|---|
| GMP-compliant culture compounds | Commercial manufacture of regenerative medicine products using iPS cells and other cells | Y-27632 (ROCK inhibitor), SB431542 (ALK4/5/7 inhibitor) and CHIR99021 (GSK-3β inhibitor). ICH Q7 compliant, no animal-derived raw materials, made at a GMP plant in Japan |
| CultureSure series | Research and development | Research-grade powders and solutions of culture compounds. A comparison table guides users on when to use these and when to use the GMP-grade products |
| StemSure hPSC Medium Δ | Maintenance culture of human ES and iPS cells | A serum-free liquid medium for feeder-free conditions. Contains no animal-derived components or albumin (and no bFGF) |
| Custom media for cell culture | R&D and manufacture of biopharmaceuticals | Contract and OEM manufacture in GMP-grade facilities. Powder at 400 to 1,000 kg per batch, liquid at 100 to 1,500 L per batch. Proprietary continuous milling and blending technology |
| Sale of other companies' products | Antibody production, MSCs, iPS cells | FUJIFILM Biosciences media for CHO, HEK293, hybridoma cells and MSCs; R&D Systems' iPS cell expansion medium; the thermo-responsive culture dishes of the cell sheet regenerative medicine promotion body; and others |
| Contract services (subsidiary) | Drug discovery support | Anti-cancer drug assays using a specialised cancer cell culture method, exosome isolation, protein production in insect and mammalian cells, antibody generation by DNA immunisation, endotoxin testing |
A culture medium is a powder in which dozens of components (amino acids, sugars, vitamins, inorganic salts and more) are blended evenly, in amounts ranging from a few milligrams to hundreds of kilograms. On its custom media page the company says its proprietary continuous milling technology brings raw materials of different particle sizes to a uniform size, and that it has technology for evenly blending many trace components of a few milligrams to a few hundred milligrams Sourced. In a powder medium, uneven distribution of trace components makes the concentration vary from lot to lot once the powder is dissolved, affecting cell growth and antibody quality Not yet confirmed. This is exactly the kind of powder-handling know-how that chemical and reagent makers build up, and it fits with the company's description of its media as an extension of "pharmaceutical raw material manufacturing technology cultivated in the specialty chemicals business".
11. The risks this company carries
| Risk | Substance | Category |
|---|---|---|
| Pace of regenerative medicine reaching patients | The GMP-grade products are aimed at commercial manufacture of regenerative medicine products. If few such products are approved and launched, demand will be slow to grow | Inference |
| Overlapping roles within the group | FUJIFILM Biosciences also makes and sells media, and this company sells Biosciences products in Japan. Roles could change with group restructuring | Inference |
| No way to verify from outside | Sales of media and culture reagents, customers for the GMP-grade products and capital expenditure are all undisclosed | Not yet confirmed |
| Dependence on other companies' products | For iPS cell and MSC media it also sells other companies' products, so a change of policy at a supplier would affect its range | Inference |
12. Glossary
- Culture medium
- A liquid or powder containing the nutrients cells need. See our explainer on cell culture media for more.
- Culture additive (small molecule)
- A compound added to a medium in small amounts to control cell survival, growth or differentiation.
- ICH Q7 (API GMP)
- The international guideline for manufacturing and quality control of active pharmaceutical ingredients. See also our explainer on GMP.
- iPS cells
- Stem cells made from ordinary body cells that can turn into many different cell types. See our explainer on iPS cells for more.
- ROCK inhibitor
- A compound that suppresses the cell death that occurs when iPS cells are broken up into single cells. Y-27632 is the best-known example.
- Feeder-free
- A way of culturing stem cells without supporting cells (feeder cells).
- CHO cells
- Cells derived from Chinese hamster ovary. The most widely used cells for producing antibody drugs.
- Endotoxin
- A toxin from bacterial cell walls. Testing for contamination is mandatory for drugs and culture raw materials.
13. References
- FUJIFILM Wako Pure Chemical Company overview (in Japanese): company name, English name, head office, founding, business, share capital, production sites and R&D sites. https://www.fujifilm.com/ffwk/ja/about/company-profile
- FUJIFILM Wako Pure Chemical History (in Japanese). https://www.fujifilm.com/ffwk/ja/about/history
- FUJIFILM Wako Pure Chemical List of group companies (in Japanese), including the address of FUJIFILM Wako Bio Solutions. https://www.fujifilm.com/ffwk/ja/about/group
- FUJIFILM Wako Pure Chemical Corporate Profile 2025 (English edition, September 2025): consolidated revenue, revenue and share by business, consolidated employees, share capital and business description. https://asset.fujifilm.com/www/ffwk/files/2025-12/565ceafbf73f3d9052bc2990d7313753/250924-2_FFWK_company_profile_8P_EN_low.pdf
- FUJIFILM Wako Pure Chemical News release "Launch of CHIR99021, a GSK-3β inhibitor culture additive compliant with API GMP" (in Japanese, 19 January 2026): launch dates and prices of the three products, manufacture at a GMP plant in Japan, and quality testing. https://www.fujifilm.com/ffwk/ja/news/313
- FUJIFILM Wako Pure Chemical Product information, "GMP-compliant culture compounds" (in Japanese): ICH Q7 controls and comparison with the CultureSure series. https://labchem-wako.fujifilm.com/jp/category/03427.html
- FUJIFILM Wako Pure Chemical Product information, "Culture media for pharmaceutical manufacturing" (in Japanese): StemSure hPSC Medium Δ, FUJIFILM Biosciences and R&D Systems media, and the media optimisation service. https://labchem-wako.fujifilm.com/jp/pharmaceutical-raw-materials/category/culture-media.html
- FUJIFILM Wako Pure Chemical Product information, "Custom media for cell culture" (in Japanese): scale of GMP-grade facilities, continuous milling and blending technology, and quality testing. https://labchem-wako.fujifilm.com/jp/category/00520.html
- FUJIFILM Wako Pure Chemical Product information, "Cell culture" (in Japanese): the range of products handled. https://labchem-wako.fujifilm.com/jp/category/lifescience/mammalian_cells/index.html
- FUJIFILM Wako Pure Chemical Product information, "Smart thermo-responsive culture dishes SSCW" from the cell sheet regenerative medicine promotion body (in Japanese). https://labchem-wako.fujifilm.com/jp/category/03314.html
- FUJIFILM Wako Bio Solutions What we do (in Japanese): contract services offered and the tie with Fukushima Medical University. https://www.fujifilm.com/wkbs/ja/what-we-do
- FUJIFILM Wako Bio Solutions History (in Japanese): founded in February 2019; anti-cancer drug assay services started in April 2019. https://www.fujifilm.com/wkbs/ja/about/history
- FUJIFILM Holdings Annual securities report for the year to March 2026 (in Japanese, filed 24 June 2026): acquisition of Wako Pure Chemical Industries (April 2017), acquisition of Irvine Scientific (June 2018), group company listings, and LS Solutions revenue and drivers of growth. https://ir.fujifilm.com/ja/investors/ir-news/auto_20260624154900_S100YIBH/pdfFile.pdf
- FUJIFILM Holdings Results presentation for the year to March 2026 (in Japanese, 12 May 2026): LS Solutions revenue and the forecast for the year to March 2027 (after restatement of business segments). https://ir.fujifilm.com/ja/investors/ir-materials/earnings-presentations/main/01113/teaserItems5/0/linkList/0/link/ff_fy2025q4_001j.pdf
- FUJIFILM News release "Fujifilm Rebrands Life Sciences Companies to Strengthen Position as Strategic Partners for Life, Offering End-to-End Solutions" (2 June 2025). https://www.fujifilm.com/jp/en/news/hq/12432
14. Claim-to-source audit
| Claim in the article | Category | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Company name, English name, head office, founding, share capital, production sites and R&D sites | Sourced | Reference 1 https://www.fujifilm.com/ffwk/ja/about/company-profile |
| History from founding in 1922 to the 2018 name change, including Shibayagi becoming a subsidiary in 2015 and the 2019 merger with IS Japan | Sourced | Reference 2 https://www.fujifilm.com/ffwk/ja/about/history |
| Consolidated revenue of ¥132.3 billion, revenue and share by business, 2,501 consolidated employees, and the inclusion of media and cell culture reagents in the reagents business | Sourced | Reference 4 https://asset.fujifilm.com/www/ffwk/files/2025-12/565ceafbf73f3d9052bc2990d7313753/250924-2_FFWK_company_profile_8P_EN_low.pdf |
| Launch dates of the three GMP-grade additives (May 2023, April 2025, January 2026), prices, manufacture at a GMP plant in Japan, quality testing and custom-made products | Sourced | Reference 5 https://www.fujifilm.com/ffwk/ja/news/313 |
| ICH Q7 controls (documentation, validation, no animal-derived raw materials) and the comparison with the CultureSure series | Sourced | Reference 6 https://labchem-wako.fujifilm.com/jp/category/03427.html |
| Features of StemSure hPSC Medium Δ, sale of FUJIFILM Biosciences and R&D Systems media, and the media optimisation service | Sourced | Reference 7 https://labchem-wako.fujifilm.com/jp/pharmaceutical-raw-materials/category/culture-media.html |
| Scale of GMP-grade custom media facilities, continuous milling and blending technology, and OEM manufacture | Sourced | Reference 8 https://labchem-wako.fujifilm.com/jp/category/00520.html |
| The company offers products for the whole cell culture workflow | Sourced | Reference 9 https://labchem-wako.fujifilm.com/jp/category/lifescience/mammalian_cells/index.html |
| Sale of the cell sheet promotion body's thermo-responsive culture dishes (labelled as co-developed with Hosokawa Yoko) | Sourced | Reference 10 https://labchem-wako.fujifilm.com/jp/category/03314.html |
| FUJIFILM Wako Bio Solutions is located on the Fukushima Medical University campus | Sourced | Reference 3 https://www.fujifilm.com/ffwk/ja/about/group |
| The contract services offered, anti-cancer drug assays using a specialised cancer cell culture method developed by the university's research center, and the description as a university venture | Sourced | Reference 11 https://www.fujifilm.com/wkbs/ja/what-we-do |
| Founding of the contract services subsidiary (February 2019) and start of anti-cancer drug assay services (April 2019) | Sourced | Reference 12 https://www.fujifilm.com/wkbs/ja/about/history |
| FUJIFILM's acquisition of Wako Pure Chemical Industries (April 2017) and of Irvine Scientific (June 2018), LS Solutions revenue of ¥143.2 billion and the drivers of growth | Sourced | Reference 13 https://ir.fujifilm.com/ja/investors/ir-news/auto_20260624154900_S100YIBH/pdfFile.pdf |
| LS Solutions forecast of ¥150.0 billion for the year to March 2027 (restated prior year ¥140.2 billion) | Sourced | Reference 14 https://ir.fujifilm.com/ja/investors/ir-materials/earnings-presentations/main/01113/teaserItems5/0/linkList/0/link/ff_fy2025q4_001j.pdf |
| The company's name did not change in the June 2025 rebranding, and it is a separate company from FUJIFILM Biosciences | Sourced | Reference 15 https://www.fujifilm.com/jp/en/news/hq/12432 |
| The three types of cell culture company (CDMO, supplier, cell therapy) | Our calculation | Our own classification. Companies shown are examples from the 20 in this series |
| Sales of media and culture reagents, the plant making GMP media and capacity expansion plans, customers for GMP-grade products, R&D spending and capital expenditure | Not yet confirmed | Not in references 1 to 14. This article makes no estimate https://asset.fujifilm.com/www/ffwk/files/2025-12/565ceafbf73f3d9052bc2990d7313753/250924-2_FFWK_company_profile_8P_EN_low.pdf |
| A past FUJIFILM announcement about an investment in a maker of media supplements | Not yet confirmed | Not used in this article, because the text could not be confirmed at its current URL (our note) |
| The readings that the company wants to keep research-reagent customers into manufacturing, and that it assumes a division of labour within the group | Inference | This article's interpretation of the product line-up and the sale of other companies' products |
| The readings that cell culture is still only part of a pillar, and that the aim is low-volume, high-value raw materials | Inference | This article's interpretation of the business mix and published prices |
| The risks of the pace of regenerative medicine, overlapping roles within the group, and dependence on other companies' products | Inference | This article's interpretation of product uses and the sales mix |
| The view that lot-to-lot differences in additives affect final product quality, and the importance of blend uniformity in powder media | Not yet confirmed | This article's technical commentary, not something the company has published |
Last updated 24 September 2026 / Troy Technical
Every figure in this article comes from the websites, corporate profile and news releases of FUJIFILM Wako Pure Chemical and FUJIFILM Wako Bio Solutions, and from FUJIFILM Holdings' statutory filings and results presentation. No research-firm estimates or press-based figures have been used. Passages marked "Inference" are this article's interpretation of primary sources, not statements made by the company.