Polybatics on verge of deal for nanotech payloads

Thursday 26th August 2010

Polybatics, a biotech company that counts Warehouse founder Stephen Tindall among its investors, is on the verge of signing a deal to commercialise the use of ‘stressed-out’ bacteria to deliver nanotech payloads.

The technology is a potential cheaper rival to conventional resin beads which can carry microscopic payloads such as enzymes and vaccines with applications ranging from medicines to fuels. Polybatics uses a technique that puts bacteria under stress to create nano-sized biodegradable polymer beads with attached functional components.

The initial research was brought to Massey University by German scientist Bernd Rehm, who is now the institution’s professor of microbiology. Funded for commercialisation initially came from the Manawatu Investment Group and private investors, including Tindall, allowing the establishment of Polybatics.

The company has had approaches from potential global partners and expects to sign at least one deal by November, said chief executive Tracy Thompson.

He declined to name the party, a materials production company, but said its negotiating team included very senior managers, which gave him confidence on reaching an agreement.

“We’re happy to profit-share, obtain or give a royalty, to slice and dice as we want,” Thompson said.

He likened Polybatics to a tree, where the trunk “is our core technology, making functional biobeads. As the branches of the tree get ever finer, you get more and more applications for the technology, and that’s what we want to develop”.

Production of resin beads, which Polybatics hopes to usurp by using bacteria as a ‘factory,’ is an expensive, labourious exercise, Thompson said. And the enzymes or vaccine payloads have to be made separately before being attached to the nanobead carrier.

Polybatics is prepared to license the technology to another university for further research into applications though the company would retain first rights to the commercialisation and benefit from the royalties. It would also look at other ways to structure a deal.

“Our strategy is not just to be a research and development firm,” Thompson said.

“We’re going to make our own products in various applications, sell, license and collaborate. The decision for what is the best approach depends on the specific opportunity, the partners and the market opportunity.”

Businesswire.co.nz

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