A Scottish bio-tech company focussed on the global cell culture market has licensed new technology that will allow it to massively expand its range of regenerative medicine, cell-based therapy and drug delivery products.
Lanarkshire-based Biogelx, whose hydrogels have until now been restricted to laboratory in-vitro testing, is hoping that the licence it has agreed with the University of Strathclyde will now allow it to produce therapeutic products that can be use inside the human body.
According to Biogelx’s chief executive David Lightbody the worldwide market for such in-vivo products could be worth over $3 billion (£2bn) a year.
Dr Lightbody believes that the new products the company now plans to develop will allow Biogelx to increase its annual turnover from £250,000 to in excess of £2 million over the next couple of years.
“It’s been a thrilling year for Biogelx and securing this first of a kind technology is a game changer for us,” Dr Lightbody said. “We now have a fantastic platform to extend our activities from laboratory-based into direct clinical applications and export our technology into worldwide markets.”
The exclusive worldwide licence for Strathclyde University’s recently-developed tripeptide technology will allow Biogelx to develop nano-fibres created from amino acids which will be “more bio-compatible” than Biogelx’s previous products.
The new technology was recently perfected at the University of Strathclyde by Professor Rein Ulijn. In return for licensing the technology to Biogelx, the university will receive a cut of future royalty payments.
Biogelx is itself a Strathclyde University spin-off which started trading in early 2013 and now has a workforce of ten based at the BioCity Scotland life sciences incubator in Newhouse. By the end of next year the company now expects to have doubled its headcount.
Its current range of non-animal derived hydrogels – which mimic the behaviour of tissues found in the body – are used to grow cells to be used in drug discovery, cancer cell research and toxicology screening.
Earlier this year Biogelx secured £630,000 of funding from the Scottish Investment Bank, Peak Capital Advisors, the University of Strathclyde and Gabriel Investments to support its overseas expansion plans.
The company, which recently opened a sales office in New York, is now selling into South Korea, Italy, Spain and Portugal in addition to the US.
Although most of the company’s sales are currently in the UK, Dr Lightbody expects that the US will become the company’s main market within the next year or two.
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