Biotech firm wins bird flu grant

Aug 2 2008 by Chris Knox, The Journal

A BIOTECH company has been handed a £3.7m grant from the Singapore Government to help develop technology that can help detect the presence of airborne bird flu.

County Durham-based Analytical NanoTechnologies (ANTnano) will use the cash to develop its ground-breaking chemical detection technology in the Far Eastern country.

The Sunderland University spin-out business signed a £100,000-plus licensing agreement with Manchester firm Microarray earlier this year for exclusive worldwide distribution of the technology and now hopes to build healthy sales as a result.

However, its annual figures revealed that ANTnano is still in the red as it continues to plough money into developing the technology for the mass market.

While sales increased from £120,114 to almost £200,000, the Sedgefield-based firm made a loss of almost £1m as it continues to looks for a big break into the Far East commercial market.

The firm was set up in 2005 to exploit technology developed at Sunderland University to detect airborne pollution. It has increased its involvement in Far East markets through its non-executive chairman Joe Arend, who had previously specialised in the region during his time as area director at pharmaceutical giant Procter and Gamble.

Last year the firm signed an agreement with Nanyang Technology University in Singapore to receive research and development advice for the technology. It has also received financial backing from a Singapore venture capital fund as it works with the country’s government to help prevent any future outbreak of avian flu.

Allan Syms, ANTnano chief executive, said: “It is still very much early days for the company, with a lot of investment being put into the Microarray technology. However, we are in a part of the world that is doing all it can to prevent any future outbreak of bird flu, so we expect our revenues to look much healthier over the coming years as the product becomes more commercialised.”

The company is also developing “dip strip” technology that can detect certain enzymes in a variety of solutions.

It is targeting the strips at the household detergent market, so that companies can detect whether their solutions are being copied by others.

It is also set to launch a new air analyser that gives real time measurements of the amount of enzymes being used in the manufacture of products such as bread, beer and household cleaning products.