Overview of the Partnership
Bachem AG is one of the world's most respected names in peptide chemistry — a Swiss-listed company with over 50 years of experience manufacturing peptide APIs, building blocks, and biochemicals for the pharmaceutical, biotech, and research industries. GL Biochem's relationship with Bachem is a testament to the principle that the world's leading peptide companies can collaborate productively even where their product ranges overlap, by focusing on genuine complementarity rather than competition.
The partnership was formalised in 2017 following several years of informal contact between GL Biochem's and Bachem's respective technical teams at international peptide symposia — including the American Peptide Symposium and the European Peptide Symposium. The relationship is rooted in mutual respect for each other's analytical standards and a recognition that GL Biochem's cost position and scale in Fmoc unnatural amino acid production is genuinely superior, while Bachem's regulatory pedigree and European customer relationships are unmatched.
Beyond the supply relationship, Bachem serves as one of GL Biochem's key reference laboratories for analytical method validation. When GL Biochem launches a new analytical method — particularly for novel building blocks or complex modified peptides — we routinely request Bachem's analytical team to perform an independent interlaboratory comparison using the same certified reference material. This practice, while not required by any specific regulation, gives both companies and their shared customers high confidence in the robustness and transferability of the methods involved.
Product Supply & Catalogue Cross-Referencing
GL Biochem supplies Bachem with over 150 Fmoc-protected amino acid building blocks, with a particular focus on:
- N-methylated Fmoc amino acids (Fmoc-MeAla-OH, Fmoc-MePhe-OH, Fmoc-MeLeu-OH, etc.) — where GL Biochem's proprietary methylation chemistry delivers consistently higher yields and purities than conventional approaches
- Beta-amino acids (β²- and β³-amino acids, Boc and Fmoc protected) — a catalogue area where GL Biochem has invested heavily in synthetic methodology since 2015
- Fmoc-protected unnatural aromatic amino acids — including halogenated phenylalanines, biphenyl alanine, and naphthyl alanine derivatives
- Isotopically labelled Fmoc amino acids (¹³C, ¹⁵N, D) for metabolic tracing and NMR studies
These products are supplied to Bachem in bulk (typically 100g–5kg lots) and re-packaged under the Bachem catalogue number for resale through Bachem's global distribution network. The products carry Bachem's quality release documentation but are manufactured under GL Biochem's ISO 9001:2015 certified processes, with full traceability to GL Biochem batch records available on request.
A selection of high-volume GL Biochem Fmoc amino acids are also listed directly as GL Biochem-branded alternatives in Sigma-Aldrich's and TCI's online catalogues — cross-referenced with the equivalent Bachem product number — allowing researchers to choose their preferred supplier while benefiting from competitive pricing. This multi-supplier listing approach has become increasingly common in the research chemicals market and benefits end users through supply resilience.
Analytical Collaboration & Interlaboratory Studies
Perhaps the most scientifically valuable aspect of the GL Biochem–Bachem partnership is the ongoing interlaboratory analytical collaboration. Bachem's QC laboratory in Bubendorf, Switzerland — equipped with state-of-the-art UHPLC-MS, NMR, and chiroptical analysis instrumentation — provides an independent, world-class reference point for GL Biochem's analytical methods.
The two companies have participated in four joint interlaboratory comparison studies since 2018, covering:
- RP-HPLC purity determination of complex modified peptides (including PEGylated and lipidated sequences) — demonstrating <0.3% absolute purity difference between laboratories across 45 test compounds
- Chiral purity determination by CE (capillary electrophoresis) and chiral HPLC — establishing agreed reference methods for D-amino acid content in synthetic peptides
- Residual solvent analysis by GC-FID and GC-MS — validating GL Biochem's ICH Q3C-compliant residual solvent testing methodology
- Peptide content determination by quantitative AAA (amino acid analysis) — comparing Hitachi L-8900 results with Biochrom 30+ results across 30 reference peptides
The results of these studies have been published in joint technical notes distributed to shared customers, and have been cited in two peer-reviewed articles in the Journal of Peptide Science. This collaborative analytical work strengthens the credibility of both companies' QC data in the eyes of regulatory agencies and pharmaceutical customers conducting supplier qualification audits.
European Market Access & Distribution
Bachem's extensive European distribution infrastructure — including warehousing in Switzerland, Germany, and the United Kingdom, and sales offices across Western Europe — provides GL Biochem with an important channel for reaching European academic and biotech customers who strongly prefer to source from European-stocked suppliers for regulatory, logistical, and ESG reasons.
Through the Bachem relationship, GL Biochem building blocks are available with European stock, European documentation (including REACH compliance declarations and EC Safety Data Sheets), and European-language technical support. This dramatically reduces the barrier for European researchers who might otherwise be deterred by lead times or customs complexity associated with direct ordering from Shanghai.
GL Biochem and Bachem are currently in discussions about deepening the European distribution arrangement — potentially expanding the range of GL Biochem products available through Bachem's catalogue to include select catalogue peptides and pharmaceutical peptide APIs alongside the existing building block range. A formal expanded distribution agreement is anticipated to be concluded within the next 12–18 months.