£1m rise for Biotech firm
A BIOTECHNOLOGY company working to help stop the spread of swine flu expects to increase its turnover from £2m to £3m as it looks to launch its first range of high street products.
Middlesbrough firm Phytologica has already seen a surge in orders from Teesside schools following the first confirmed case of the disease at Teesside High School.
The company said it was to launch a range of naturally derived protective gels and sprays, which it hopes to sell through Boots stores nationwide by the end of the year.
The firm is part of family business Citrox, which is based on the same site at Riverside Park and specialises in the supply of concentrated formulas to the pharmaceutical and agricultural sectors as well as producing medical disinfectants.
Citrox, which was launched in 2003 and employs 10 people, is looking to increase its turnover by £500,000 to £2.5m by the end of the year.
The Sosonatural range, which will also include foams, soaps, oral and surface sprays, has been in development for more than two years and was originally a response to the global threat of the H5N1 bird flu virus in 2006. The products have since been accredited for the prevention of the H1N1 swine flu virus, which has continued to spread through Europe. There have now been 752 cases confirmed in England, 498 in Scotland, eight in Northern Ireland and three in Walest.
Phytologica MD, Christopher Ripley, said: “We are preparing people for protection, not cure. There has been a huge surge in interest in personal care products since the swine flu outbreak and it is important that people continue to heed the advice that good basic hygiene is the best defence against flu viruses.”
He said the company was working on a throat spray and that the range had passed rigorous tests at the Retroscreen Virology laboratory in London, where it had been proved to kill 99.999% of viruses in less than one minute.
Citrox, which won the Innovation category at the 2007 North East Business Awards, was set up by Mr Ripley’s brother Ian, a former development chemist who set out to make a steriliser from fruit acids and orange extracts.
Biotech is one of the six key sectors identified as potential drivers of a new economy in the Great North Revolution. The revolutionary debate, which kicked off last week, has been welcomed by the dean of Teesside Business School, Alastair Thomson.
“The aspirations set out in the campaign are exactly the right way forward, but we need to think how we are going to achieve them,” he said.
“Without the necessary ‘real world’ business education and skills, our aspirations will not see the reality the people of the region deserve. I think the big question for the campaign is how we harness the skills of our people and support them with the education they need to seize the promising future that the new economy of the north east can bring.”
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