NanomedicineCenter.com

British innovators won BI awards

British nanotechnology innovators who offer products that can combat bird flu, detect asthma instantly and illuminate cancer cells won Business Innovation Awards at the annual UK’s NanoForum. The event was held on October 28th in London, with over 100 participants from over 20 countries (Russia, Spain, Singapore, US, India, Portugal, Belgium and many more) all over the world.

“The nanotechnology market is a growing industry and it offers a great opportunity for British business. Many researchers are working on various studies. I congratulate the winners.” said Andrew Cahn, chief executive of UKTI, the event’s main sponsor.

The first winner was a Middlesex based company, Applied Nanodetectors Ltd. “We’ve developed a device that can detect asthma instantly, which is of huge importance. Country’s expenses on asthma exceed 2 billion pounds per year, so this device is very useful.” said Victor Higgs, the CEO.

The second winner was Nanoco Technologies from Manchester. “We solved the problem of how you mass produce quantum dots. These are nanocrytals which shine when exposed to ultraviolet light. Quantum dots have many uses across the world.” said Dr. Michael Edelman, the CEO.

The third winner was Intrinsiq Materials Ltd, a Hampshire based company. The CEO, Dr. Paul Reip said that they have developed various nanomaterials that could be used in many products for health and wellness. This includes devices which can attack bird flu, bacteria, fungi and much more.

The UK NanoForum was also a place for over 40 university’s nano-departments to present what they are doing in this field.

5 biotech companies seek bankruptcy protection

The global financial crisis seems to have affected every industry branch, biotechnology included. The funding for the once very popular investing niche has been lowered to a level where some of the biotech companies had to seek bankruptcy protection. And that may not be the end.

The companies that are highly affected by the crisis are those that have experimental drugs waiting for human testing, which is very expensive. Since the funding has been cut down, they just can’t pay for the clinical trials. To get things in perspective, let’s say that the funding fell for nearly $10 billion through September! That’s a over 50% fall when compared to the same period last year.

“This never happened before. This is the first time in biotechnology history that companies are going bankrupt.” says David Strupp, managing director at Cannacord, Inc., a research and investment bank. “We’ll see what happens in the next 6 to 9 months.”

But there is hope… “Investors will probably return to biotech once the economy is stablized. It is still a very lucrative niche.” says Brent Milner, managing director of healthcare investing at Stanford Financial Group, Co.

Nanodevice detects drugs in saliva

Royal Philips Eletronics has developed a device that’s based on nanotechnology and it’s able to detect various kinds of drugs (such as marijuana, cocaine) in saliva within two minutes. The electronic magnate has signed a deal with Concateno PLC, a drug testing company, to market the product to the public.

Philips has been in the diagnostics area for a long time, and this is one of the prodcuts from their biosenor technology department. The technology they branded is called Magnotech. It uses magnetic nanoparticles to measure target molecules, and that technology could bring a revolution in the diagnostics sector.