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A Derwentside company at the leading edge of biotechnology is launching trials of a new product that is expected to attract attention from the world’s major pharmaceutical companies.
BioToolomics Ltd was set up in 2006 by Dr Chad Zhang, the developer of innovative process chromatography technology that gave the company a world-leading position in the key area of bioseparation, vital in the development of new drugs and treatments based on antibodies, vaccines, gene vectors and enzymes.
BioToolomics currently provides more than 40 types of highly efficient chromatography products to life science researchers around the globe from the company’s base in the Consett Innovation Centre, developed by Derwentside’s development agency DIDA to attract high-technology companies to the district.
“We have proved our technology now and are moving on to the next critical stage with this new product,” he said. ”Our patented resin technology provides from fifty to a hundred times improvement in separation efficiency and, coupled with our advanced chromatography column design, gives exceptional reproducibility and scalability.
“These two factors mean that our new pre-packed columns can realistically be used as disposable products which is a huge advantage for development and production use in the pharmaceutical industry. We hope to bring the product to market within a year and, as this is a rapidly-expanding market, there is real potential for us here.”
BioToolomics will begin product trials in August and is looking at possible partnerships with the major pharmaceutical companies producing antibody based drugs in order to introduce the new technology into large-scale manufacturing.
The latest development has attracted a £65,000 investment from the Three Pillars Fund, financed through One NorthEast’s innovation, industry and science programme and managed by North East Finance Ltd. The fund invests in SMEs that demonstrate potential for growth to enable them to bring their technology products to market and to prepare them to attract follow-on financing.
Last year BioToolomics attracted a £140,000 investment package made up of grants and loans for research, development, proof of concept and marketing from One NorthEast, North Star Equity Investors and the Centre of Excellence for Life Science.
“This latest investment bridges a funding gap for us and will keep us ahead of the competition,” said Dr Zhang. “It will help to take us to a place where we can attract the major manufacturers and more investment.
“The Consett Innovation Centre has been the ideal place to start my business with good facilities and a support package tailored specifically to technology businesses. The team at DIDA has linked us into vital sources of funding and investors with expertise in bioscience and research and development.”
BioToolomics is available on 01207 585820 and at www.biotoolomics.com