IMCD opens its new Life Science Laboratory hub in Shanghai

The newly inaugurated Life Science Laboratory hub is dedicated to supporting life science industries with newly established or upgraded laboratories for Beauty & Personal Care, Pharmaceuticals, and Food & Nutrition. The hub brings together the three laboratories to increase cross-industry exchanges and enhance their offerings to our customers and partners. The compound is part of the East China University of Science & Technology, allowing close collaboration with the University on talent development and innovation.

IMCD’s global network of over 80 technical centers and laboratories plays a vital role in fostering collaboration with suppliers and customers, enabling the co-creation of solutions to address complex formulation challenges and to anticipate industry trends. By combining deep local expertise with IMCD’s extensive global reach, these facilities offer valuable support to customers seeking to bring innovative products to market more quickly and effectively.

Highlights of the new Life Science Laboratory hub:

• Food & Nutrition laboratory: Focusing on applications in dairy, bakery, and savory foods, this center offers customized product development, including the creation of ready-to-eat samples and ready-to-use formulation kits. It supports customer engagement through technical training, collaborative product development with research and development teams, and industry-focused events. The center also provides on-site technical support to ensure optimal performance in customers’ production environments throughout China.

• Pharmaceuticals laboratory: Serving the wider North Asia region, this center provides advanced capabilities such as reverse-engineering, troubleshooting, formulation development, and comparative analysis. It supports various dosage forms including solid, liquid, and semi-solid preparations, and offers both internal and external technical training. Specialized services include rheological measurements of colloidal suspensions and detailed chemical analysis.

• Beauty & Personal Care laboratory: Covering the entirety of China for formulation development and the broader Asia-Pacific region for efficacy testing, this center supports segments such as skincare, sun care, hair care, toiletries, and color cosmetics. Facilities include specialized instruments for efficacy testing, including systems for measuring sun protection factors and advanced skin diagnostics.

The center also includes a Beauty Studio, a dedicated space where IMCD experts collaborate with beauty brands, using cutting-edge, trend-driven, and ready-to-use chassis, active ingredients, functional agents, and sensory modifiers, to develop innovative, tailor-made, and market-ready formulation prototypes, as well as a hair salon to support testing and demonstration of hair care solutions under real-use conditions.

“The new Life Science Laboratory hub represents an exciting step forward for IMCD in China,” said Nicky Huang, managing director for IMCD China. “It demonstrates our long-term investment in building local capabilities, strengthening our ability to serve customers with scientific expertise and market knowledge. By integrating advanced technical facilities with a customer-focused approach, we are creating meaningful opportunities for growth and innovation.”

Image Credits: IMCD