BASF and Sumitomo Chemical explore in vitro system for chemical safety evaluation

Dec. 21, 2015

Application of fully functional cultured cells as alternative to animal testing

Tokyo, Japan and Ludwigshafen, Germany – December 21, 2015 – Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd. and BASF have agreed to collaborate on research into a more sustainable, in vitro system for chemical safety evaluation.

Recent years have seen an increase in stringent regulations for registration of agricultural chemicals and pharmaceuticals, and the demand to increase human relevance of safety studies. For these reasons, Sumitomo Chemical and BASF aim to create a system that supports the development of safe chemicals, while reducing the need for conventional animal testing.

As the first step in their research, Sumitomo Chemical and BASF aim to establish a new line of fully functional cultured cells to enable the safety evaluation of chemicals in a more efficient and more precise way than conventional methods.

Dr. Peter Eckes, President of BASF Bioscience Research, said: "BASF celebrates its 150th anniversary this year, and we have a history of continuous commitment to sustainability throughout our operations. In this collaboration we are combining the strength of both companies to develop new methods to reduce animal testing."

Ikuzo Ogawa, Managing Executive Officer of Sumitomo Chemical in charge of technology and research & development, said, "We will contribute to building a sustainable society through supplying safer chemicals. We are very delighted to work on the collaborative research of such great social significance in the year marking the 100th anniversary of the start of Sumitomo Chemical’s operations."

About Sumitomo Chemical

Sumitomo Chemical celebrated the 100th anniversary of the commencement of its operations in 2015. As its business philosophy, the company’s basic spirit and sense of mission are to use the power of technology to resolve difficult challenges facing society and contribute to society through its business activities. Based on this philosophy, Sumitomo Chemical, as a diversified chemical company, conducts business in five sectors – petrochemicals, energy & functional materials, IT-related chemicals, health & crop sciences, and pharmaceuticals – and provides products worldwide that support a wide variety of industries and help people’s daily lives. By proactively using the power of chemistry to improve people’s lives and find solutions to such problems facing the world as food supply, the environment, and the supply of resources and energy, Sumitomo Chemical will continue to grow for the next hundred years as a global, diversified chemical company trusted by society. The company’s consolidated net sales for fiscal 2014 were approximately 2.4 trillion yen, and it has around 31,000 employees. For further information on Sumitomo Chemical, please visit the corporate website at www.sumitomo-chem.co.jp/english.

About BASF

At BASF, we create chemistry – and have been doing so for 150 years. Our portfolio ranges from chemicals, plastics, performance products and crop protection products to oil and gas. As the world’s leading chemical company, we combine economic success with environmental protection and social responsibility. Through science and innovation, we enable our customers in nearly every industry to meet the current and future needs of society. Our products and solutions contribute to conserving resources, ensuring nutrition and improving quality of life. We have summed up this contribution in our corporate purpose: We create chemistry for a sustainable future. BASF had sales of over €74 billion in 2014 and around 113,000 employees as of the end of the year. BASF shares are traded on the stock exchanges in Frankfurt(BAS), London(BFA)and Zurich(AN). Further information on BASF is available on the Internet at www.basf.com.

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