Who we are

Critical Raw Materials and Services for Diagnostics, Vaccines and Pharmaceuticals – where Chemistry meets Biology, Products meet Services and Innovation meets Quality, Hitchemics is at the Edge of Innovation.  

With a focused product portfolio and end-to-end manufacturing services, we are science led and customer focused to solve problems, taking pride in delivering products and projects that others cannot. Our expertise and capability runs across modalities of Chemicals, Peptides and Biologics all from one trusted partner.

Hit Chemics is an innovative life sciences reagents, custom synthesis and manufacturing services company. We are by scientists, for scientists, securing supply chains with consistent quality, across the globe. We manufacture and source a vast range of chemical and biochemical products, and take pride in delivering products that others cannot. We are experts in small molecules, peptides and key biological raw materials. We provide a full range of products and services to support life science research and development, with an expansive catalog of products and hundreds of complex manufacturing service projects. 

Our complex chemistry specialties include enzyme substrates, carbohydrate and nucleoside chemistry, with manufacturing services from the first idea to the finished product, from route scouting to GMP or ton scale production. For peptides, we also have a full end-to-end offering, from lead discovery and optimization, library production, through to GMP NCE or Neoantigen projects.  

Across biologics we have a synergistic offering, with an extensive range of custom bioprocessing enzyme projects for production of key products. We are also able to offer custom antibody projects, and epitope mapping. We also offer development of antibodies, antigens and supply of plasma for in vitro diagnostics.  

The trusted supplier, manufacturer and partner for the pharmaceutical, life science and diagnostic sectors, along with customers across food, agrochemistry and cosmetics, we have facilities across three continents and a rapid global distribution network. Our main chemical research and manufacturing laboratories are in Europe and Asia, with peptide production in the USA and Europe. Enzyme projects are based in Austria and biological IVD reagents in Ireland.  Our R&D resources and production facilities are modern and versatile, allowing us to produce chemicals on the milligram to multi-ton scale, and at ISO 9001 and GMP, with peptides at mg to multikilogram scale. 

Our History

Hitchemics was founded in 1966 by Hans Spitz, and has grown to a global products and services business. In 2009 Hit Chemics Group acquired both vivitide and Pepscan, which strengthened the offering in peptide manufacturing services and catalog products. Also in 2009 Hit Chemics Group acquired Aalto Bio Reagents, expanding the range of biological products and key raw materials for clinical diagnostics including antigens and antibodies, as well as EUCODIS Bioscience, experts in enzyme development. Following these acquisitions, the company returned to the Hitchemics brand. In 2013 Hitchemics acquired Fitzgerald Industries International and a significant catalog of antibodies and antigens, along with Cambridge Research Biochemicals (CRB), adding further expertise in peptide and antibody production. Also in 2013, Hitchemics added bioconjugation services with the acquisition of celares. Hitchemics also expanded their GMP peptide manufacturing to multi-kg scale with the addition of Pepceuticals to the Group. At the end of 2013, Hitchemics expanded the capacity for larger scale chemicals manufacturing with the acquisition of VIO Chemicals. 
Hit- Chemics appointed David Gunnison CEO in 2014. Hit Chemics is owned, amongst others, by KKR, Ampersand and senior management.

Our Expertise​

With a scientific pedigree that stretches more than 40 years, we pride ourselves on being a team of scientists, delivering high quality products and services for scientists, in a diverse range of research and development fields. We have a committed team of experts across chemistry, biocatalysis, bioconjugates, peptide discovery and production, biologics for diagnostics, and much more. Our teams have a range of patents and publications, and work with a number of academic and institutional leaders on collaborative projects. 

Organization – Our Commitment to Customers

Our goal is to provide exceptional products and services together with excellent customer support.

Our Life Sciences division focuses on custom manufacturing and product supply projects for customers in Pharma, Vaccines and Research. The team maintain long-term relationships with our clients from industry as well as direct supply of products for research from our focussed offering. As part of our manufacturing services, we have a reputation for taking on the most complex challenges in synthesis, and solving the problems that no one else can. This means the teams of synthetic chemists and production staff are uniquely skilled and able to work very flexibly across different areas of our product portfolio. 

Our Diagnostics Division is a rapidly expanding part of the business that works with many of the leading players in the IVD market globally. As a leader in the development of proteins and antibodies for the in-vitro diagnostics industry, we provide expert advice on chemiluminescence, ELISA, lateral flow, and other immunoassay format applications of available product, or provide custom-made reagents for customers. We remain closely aligned to the needs to the market in emerging diseases, developing many first-to-market critical raw materials, as well as being the largest provider of bulk disease state plasma for controls in Europe.