Cayman Chemical Company is an American

biotechnology Biotechnology is a multidisciplinary field that involves the integration of natural sciences and Engineering Science, engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms and parts thereof for products and services. Specialists ...

company founded in 1980, headquartered in

Ann Arbor, Michigan Ann Arbor is a city in Washtenaw County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851, making it the List of municipalities in Michigan, fifth-most populous cit ...

. The company provides chemicals that are used primarily by universities and pharmaceutical companies for research and the development of medicines. The company is also known as a provider of reference standards to state and federal

crime lab A crime laboratory, often shortened to crime lab, is a scientific laboratory, using primarily forensic science for the purpose of examining evidence from criminal cases. Lab personnel A typical crime lab has two sets of personnel: *Field ana ...

s for use in the detection of rapidly evolving

designer drugs A designer drug is a structural or functional analog of a controlled substance that has been designed to mimic the pharmacological effects of the original drug, while avoiding classification as illegal and/or detection in standard drug tests. ...

. Small quantities of these known reference standards are analyzed using

mass spectrometry Mass spectrometry (MS) is an analytical technique that is used to measure the mass-to-charge ratio of ions. The results are presented as a ''mass spectrum'', a plot of intensity as a function of the mass-to-charge ratio. Mass spectrometry is used ...

and

gas chromatography Gas chromatography (GC) is a common type of chromatography used in analytical chemistry for Separation process, separating and analyzing compounds that can be vaporized without Chemical decomposition, decomposition. Typical uses of GC include t ...

techniques to match against

forensic evidence Forensic identification is the application of forensic science, or "forensics", and technology to identify specific objects from the trace evidence they leave, often at a crime scene or the scene of an accident. Forensic means "for the courts". Hu ...

, usually confiscated by

law enforcement Law enforcement is the activity of some members of the government or other social institutions who act in an organized manner to enforce the law by investigating, deterring, rehabilitating, or punishing people who violate the rules and norms gove ...

, or forensic toxicological evidence collected in the form of biological samples such as urine,

blood Blood is a body fluid in the circulatory system of humans and other vertebrates that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells, and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells. Blood is com ...

, or tissue.

History

Cayman Chemical Company was incorporated on June 6, 1980, in Denver, Colorado. It was initially a marine

natural product A natural product is a natural compound or substance produced by a living organism—that is, found in nature. In the broadest sense, natural products include any substance produced by life. Natural products can also be prepared by chemical s ...

s company. Building on earlier environmental studies in the North Sound of Grand Cayman Island, Cayman initially sold

prostaglandin Prostaglandins (PG) are a group of physiology, physiologically active lipid compounds called eicosanoids that have diverse hormone-like effects in animals. Prostaglandins have been found in almost every Tissue (biology), tissue in humans and ot ...

standards as research chemicals. The company operated in Denver for several years before relocating to Ann Arbor, Michigan. Commercializing the patented work of Philippe Pradelles and others, Cayman exploited the acetylcholinesterase enzyme of

electric eels The electric eels are a genus, ''Electrophorus'', of neotropical freshwater fish from South America in the family Gymnotidae, of which they are the only members of the subfamily Electrophorinae. They are known for their ability to stun thei ...

to develop a range of sensitive enzyme immunoassays for prostaglandins in the late 1980s. The availability of these assays enabled the development of Celebrex by

Searle Searle may refer to: __NOTOC__ Persons * Searle (surname) * J. Searle Dawley (1877–1949), American film director, producer, screenwriter, stage actor and playwright * Searle Turton (born 1979), Canadian politician Places * Serle, a comune in L ...

Monsanto The Monsanto Company () was an American agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation founded in 1901 and headquartered in Creve Coeur, Missouri. Monsanto's best-known product is Roundup, a glyphosate-based herbicide, developed ...

, relying on measurements of prostaglandin E2 and

thromboxane B2 Thromboxane B2 (TXB2) is an inactive metabolite/product of thromboxane A2. It is almost completely cleared in the urine. It itself is not involved in platelet activation and aggregation in case of a wound, but its precursor, thromboxane A2, is. T ...

, and of

Singulair Montelukast, sold under the brand name Singulair among others, is a medication used in the maintenance treatment of asthma. It is generally less preferred for this use than inhaled corticosteroids. It is not useful for acute asthma attacks. ...

Merck & Co Merck & Co., Inc. is an American Multinational corporation, multinational pharmaceutical company headquartered in Rahway, New Jersey. The company does business as Merck Sharp & Dohme or MSD outside the United States and Canada. It is one of the ...

, relying on measurements of unstable

leukotriene Leukotrienes are a family of eicosanoid inflammation, inflammatory mediators produced in leukocytes by the redox, oxidation of arachidonic acid (AA) and the essential fatty acid eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) by the enzyme arachidonate 5-lipoxyg ...

Subsidiaries

Cayman Europe

Cayman Europe was established in January, 2005 in

Tallinn, Estonia Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...

. Their operations focus on the distribution of Cayman Chemical products in Europe.

Cayman Pharma

Facilities are located in

Neratovice Neratovice (; ) is a town in Mělník District in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 16,000 inhabitants. It is an industrial town, known especially for the Spolana chemical plant. Administrative division Neratovice co ...

, a town 18 miles north of Prague in the Czech Republic. Production is focused on pharmaceutical ingredients for generic drug formulators, specifically bulk

prostaglandins Prostaglandins (PG) are a group of physiologically active lipid compounds called eicosanoids that have diverse hormone-like effects in animals. Prostaglandins have been found in almost every tissue in humans and other animals. They are derive ...

Matreya LLC

Matreya, LLC is a lipid biochemical company offering a comprehensive line of sphingolipids, glycosphingolipids, gangliosides, globotriaosylceramides, fatty acids, and sterols.

References

External links

Cayman Chemical Official website

Cayman Pharma Official website
Research support companies Chemical companies established in 1980 1980 establishments in Michigan {{Chemical-company-stub