Company Overview

Reference Standards & Certified Reference Materials (CRMs)

CATO offers more than 130,900 reference standards and CRMs covering pharmacopoeial and regulatory requirements across major global markets, with a regulatory compliance rate exceeding 95%. The majority of products are held in stock for same-day dispatch, and every batch ships with a full COA package that includes complete spectral data. Full analytical characterization suite: HPLC, LC-MS, ¹H-NMR, ¹³C-NMR, 2D NMR (COSY, HSQC, HMBC, NOESY), GC, GC-MS, water content (Karl Fischer), TGA, residue on ignition, optical rotation, and elemental analysis.

Category	Key Sub-Categories	SKUs
Pharmaceutical Impurity Reference Standards	EP/USP pharmacopoeial impurities, API-related impurities, degradation products, starting material impurities, process-related impurities, genotoxic impurities (GTIs), metabolic impurities, stereoisomeric impurities	58,800+
Isotope-Labeled Internal Standards	Drug analysis & pharmacokinetics (PK), clinical mass spectrometry, environmental/food/veterinary residue testing	15,000+
Pesticide Residue Reference Standards	Biopesticides, insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, plant growth regulators, acaricides	12,200+
Consumer Product Testing Standards	RoHS/REACH compliance, PFAS, flame retardants, plasticizers, polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs)	9,900+
Veterinary Drug Residue Standards	Beta-agonists (ractopamine/clenbuterol), malachite green, sulfonamides, penicillins, quinolones, nitroimidazoles	5,200+
Natural Product & Botanical Standards	Saponins, phenolic acids, terpenoids, flavonoids, amino acids & peptides, alkaloids	3,150+
Food Safety Reference Standards	National food safety surveillance panels, mycotoxins & metabolites, amino acids, food additives, vitamins	2,950+
Environmental Testing Standards	Dioxins, PFAS, short-chain chlorinated paraffins (SCCPs), antibiotics, PBBs, emerging contaminants	2,200+
Pharmacopoeial Reagents & Titration Solutions	Test reagents, buffers, indicators, titration solutions; covering pH measurement, clarity checks, osmolality determination; applicable to physicochemical characterization, impurity testing, potency assay, and bioactivity analysis	3,400+
Quality Control (QC) Samples	Drug analysis & PK, clinical MS, environmental, food, veterinary/pesticide residue, nutritional analysis, contaminant profiling	18,100+

CATO's pharmaceutical impurity reference standards cover drug-related impurities for more than 95% of major API drug substances across the full development lifecycle, from early impurity profiling through GMP-stage quantitative value assignment. The portfolio spans more than ten impurity sub-categories: EP/USP pharmacopoeial impurities, genotoxic impurities (GTIs), metabolic impurities, process-related impurities, isotope-labeled compounds, and more. Both qualitative impurity identification in early research and quantitative value assignment for regulatory filing can be fulfilled through a single engagement with CATO.

Advanced & Specialty Materials

CATO's Advanced Materials Division is strategically positioned across the semiconductor, new energy, and biopharmaceutical sectors. Core personnel are drawn from leading institutions including Sun Yat-sen University and SUSTech. The division operates from a 4,000 m² dedicated R&D facility and maintains two production bases in Zhuhai and Ganzhou with combined hundred-ton-scale manufacturing capacity. The current portfolio covers 3,000+ products across nine technical segments.
Leveraging CATO's proprietary SuFEx catalytic platform, ultra-low-temperature synthesis capability, and chiral resolution technology, the New Materials Division handles orders from milligram-scale R&D samples through hundred-ton commercial production, providing a seamless lab-to-manufacturing workflow.

Segment	Representative Product Classes
Vaccine Inactivating Agents	Beta-propiolactone (BPL) and other biosafety-grade inactivation reagents
Pharmaceutical Intermediates	Key intermediates for API total synthesis and process chemistry
Photoresist Intermediates	Functional intermediates for semiconductor EUV/DUV lithography
Polyimide Intermediates	Precursor materials for high-performance films and flexible display substrates
Organic Solar Cell Materials	Acceptor and donor functional molecules for OPV devices
Perovskite Solar Cell Materials	Perovskite precursors and functional interlayer materials
OLED Intermediates	Functional intermediates for organic light-emitting device fabrication
Cosmetic Active Ingredients	Whitening actives, anti-aging compounds, and performance-driven cosmetic raw materials
Custom New Materials	Tailored synthesis and formulation on request

Intermediate & Custom Synthesis Services

CATO provides milligram-to-kilogram-scale custom synthesis of small-molecule compounds, with particular strength in globally scarce reference standards, hard-to-source molecules, and structures required by emerging regulatory frameworks.
The synthesis facility houses 120+ fume hoods and draws on a cumulative knowledge base of over 100,000 small-molecule compounds. CATO's chemists have deep expertise in chiral and heterocyclic chemistry, and the laboratory is fully equipped for reactions under rigorously inert (anhydrous/anaerobic) atmospheres, cryogenic conditions (−100 °C to −200 °C), and with highly corrosive reagents.

Technology Platform	Capabilities
SuFEx Catalysis (Sulfur(VI) Fluoride Exchange)	Proprietary system developed entirely in-house; results published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition (ACIE) and other leading chemistry journals
Deuterium Labeling of Small Molecules	Decarboxylative deuteration and aromatic ring deuteration; selective introduction of 1–3 deuterium atoms per molecule
Chiral Chemistry	Chiral resolution, asymmetric catalysis, enantioselective total synthesis
Nitration Reactions	Process optimization and hazard assessment for safe industrial-scale nitration
Hydrogenation Reactions	Catalytic hydrogenation and process-optimized chlorination; green chemistry methodology throughout
Cryogenic Synthesis	Dedicated 50 L cryogenic reactor; operating range −100 °C to −200 °C
Continuous Flow / Microreactor Technology	High-temperature, high-pressure, and hazardous reactions conducted safely and efficiently under flow chemistry conditions

Pharmaceutical Impurity Isolation, Structural Elucidation & Value Assignment

CATO provides a fully integrated impurity characterization service covering the complete workflow: impurity localization → analytical method transfer → preparative isolation → structural elucidation → quantitative value assignment. CATO routinely handles technically demanding impurity challenges, including low-level impurities (≤0.1%), poorly resolved species, labile degradation products, and poorly soluble compounds.
Deliverables include a full product conformity report accepted in regulatory submission dossiers, supported by complete characterization datasets: HPLC, LC-MS, IR, ¹H-NMR, ¹³C-NMR, QNMR, DEPT135, and 2D NMR spectra (COSY, HSQC, HMBC).