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NEWS
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Companies Launch
Microtechnology Manufacturing Project
10th May 2006
Nottingham, UK --
Critical Pharmaceuticals Limited, in collaboration with
Upperton Limited and the University of Nottingham, is
pleased to announce that on the 3rd January 2006 it
started a DTI Micro & Nanotechnology project for the
solvent-free free manufacture of drug-loaded microparticles.
The funding of £414k over 2½ years will enable scientists
to optimize and scale up high pressure manufacturing
processes for the production of long-acting injectable
formulations of protein-based drugs.
The DTI Micro &
Nanotechnology programme is part of the call in July
2003, when the Science and Innovation Minister, Lord
Sainsbury, announced a cash injection of £90m over a
six year period to help industry harness the commercial
opportunities offered by Micro & Nanotechnology. Under
this initiative, the DTI has allocated £50m for a Collaborative
Applied Research programme to support R&D projects.
The main objective of this programme is to improve the
UK's innovation performance. This will be achieved by
increasing the breadth and depth of collaborative research
and development between the UK science, engineering
and technology base and UK-based firms.
Welcoming the new
partnership, Science and Innovation Minister, Lord Sainsbury,
said: "This initiative provides a real opportunity to
harness the world class expertise that we possess in
the UK and direct it towards the task of wealth creation.
"Micro and nanotechnology
is of crucial importance in our society. By providing
a focus for collaboration and delivery, this partnership
should establish British industry as the world leader
in this area and, an attractive proposition for investors."
Dr Martin Whitaker,
Critical Pharmaceuticals' Operations Director, said:
"Obtaining funding for this Micro & Nanotechnology Collaborative
R&D project will enable us to scale up our manufacturing
process from lab scale to one that is capable of producing
batches of microparticles for clinical trials. This
programme will allow us to speed up our product development"
Upperton's Founding
Director, Dr Richard Johnson, was delighted to receive
confirmation of the successful application saying "Working
together under this exciting DTI programme we can unlock
the potential of a number of pharmaceutical product
applications in the coming months"
Critical Pharmaceuticals
is a venture capital funded product development company
based in Nottingham, UK. Critical Pharmaceuticals creates
high value added therapeutics by applying its breakthrough,
and proprietary, technology to transform the drug delivery
of challenging molecules. The company is developing
biologic controlled release delivery systems for injection
that will maximise clinical benefits to patients.
Upperton Limited
is a privately owned company that specialises in the
development of novel micro and nanoparticles for the
pharmaceutical and other industries. Its core technologies
include patented spray drying processes that can be
licensed to partner companies. Upperton's research headquarters
and its contract spray drying laboratory are both based
in Nottingham, UK.
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