Since Seikagaku’s U.S. subsidiary Associates of Cape Cod, Inc. (ACC) manufactures and sells reagents using a substance extracted from horseshoe crab blood cells as a raw material, it continuously engages in horseshoe crab conservation activities to protect this precious natural resource. In addition to supporting the American horseshoe crab, in 2019, ACC began providing assistance for activities to maintain the population of Asian horseshoe crabs in the form of customized aquaculture equipment and training. Maintaining the population involves growing survivable juveniles produced by in vitro fertilization of sperm and eggs and releasing them into the natural environment. ACC has long engaged in this activity and accumulated related technology and expertise. 

This assistance will be made available to academic institutions and private sector researchers around the world. Organizations receiving assistance are granted a license to use intellectual property relating to horseshoe crabs owned by ACC free of charge and are also provided with instructions regarding in vitro fertilization methods and training in the operation of highly efficient aquaculture equipment. The number of American horseshoe crabs that ACC has released in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts had reached about 1.2 million as of December 31, 2022.

In parallel with these conservation activities, ACC has also focused on development of gene-recombinant endotoxin-detecting reagents that can be manufactured without using blood harvested from horseshoe crabs.

PyroSmart NextGen, launched by ACC for sale in overseas markets in April 2021 and launched by Seikagaku for sale in Japan in May, was commercialized by ACC based on the results of R&D conducted for many years at Seikagaku.

Since PyroSmart NextGen follows the same cascade pathway as naturally sourced products, the same test methods and instrumentation can be used when the product is substituted for traditional naturally sourced reagents. ACC seeks to contribute to sustained environmental conservation by providing the option of choosing a gene-recombinant reagent in addition to taking measures to maintain the population of horseshoe crabs.

The Seikagaku Group will continue to actively support activities to conserve horseshoe crab populations and strive to use this resource in a sustainable manner.