Proactive investors

Additional information

Additional	Information
Market:	AIM
Sector:	Support Services
Epic:	FIP
News:	Latest news
Web Site:	Fusion IP
Other Articles:	24-05-201012-05-201022-04-2010

Fusion IP partner Abcellute's tissue bank gets NHS Research committee approval

University IP commercialisation specialist Fusion IP (AIM: FIP) said its partner company Abcellute Holdings has gained a favourable opinion from a NHS Research Ethics Committee for its Abcellute Tissue Bank unit to operate as a Research Tissue Bank under NRES guidelines (National Research Ethics Service).

Abcellute Holdings is Fusion IP's cell preservation technology portfolio company. According to Fusion, the endorsement is a dramatic step change for the Abcellute business, which can now offer a much broader range of tissues to supplement its existing product portfolio.

"This is great news for Abcellute and we're delighted that our new business will be able to offera global fresh tissue service to the pharmaceutical industry”, Abcellute CEO Gil Black commented. “We have a unique offering that we intend to make full use of, as we know that a reliable and ethical supply of human tissue is crucial to the drug development market”.

The new tissue bank, based in Welwyn Garden City's BioPark, is already working with a number of UK NHS Trusts to supply fresh tissue and cells to the global pharmaceutical industry and research organisations. Fusion noted that Abcellute has hired two key executives from the human tissue bank sector, Jacki Trafford and Dr. Shaun Kingston, to support the development of the business and drive the tissue-bank service forward.

Additionally, Abcellute recently completed a £220,000 funding round, which will enable it to apply its proprietary transport media to human cells, giving researchers across the globe access to this vital resource to drug development. Fusion IP and Finance Wales each invested £110,000, taking their shareholdings to 32% and 22% respectively.

For the first time researchers on different continents will be able to use the same fresh cells to undertake their biomedical research improving the speed and reliability of their work, Fusion said.

“Abcellute is in a position to fully exploit its 'extended life' fresh cells technology. We have worked closely with Abcellute and Finance Wales to support the company in this key period and are confident it will now start to show some significant sales growth", Fusion IP Chief Executive David Baynes stated.

Abcellute was founded in September 2001, as a spinout from Cardiff University’s School of Biosciences. The company’s core technology is based on a novel shipping matrix which permits the transport and the ability to keep and store fresh primary liver cells. Abcellute provides the research community with enhanced cell systems to improve management and development of key areas such as pre-clinical drug evaluation and regenerative medicine.

It has been a busy start to the year for the IP commercialisation group. In February Fusion announced the spin-out of Seren Photonics, an ultra-high efficient light-emitting diode (LED) company, which has been formed under Fusion’s exclusive IP agreement with the University of Sheffield.

In addition to its partnership with the University of Sheffield, Fusion also has a similar exclusive partnership with Cardiff University. These long-term exclusive agreements give Fusion access to a combined R&D (research and development) spend of over £185 million a year.

A week prior to the Seren Photonics spin-out, Fusion announced the launch of a new business under its Cardiff University partnership. The newly established Progenteq is developing a novel cartilage replacement technique, using technology developed by Professor Charlie Archer's research group at Cardiff University's School of Biosciences.

Register here to be notified of Proactiveinvestors One2One Forums.