Article

23 October 2006
Czech Business Weekly

Elmarco in joint venture for wound care ‘bridgehead’

By: Lenka Ponikelská, 23. 10. 2006, More by this author

Czech nanofiber technology specialist Elmarco set up a joint venture with Ireland-based medical technology company Alltracel Pharmaceuticals to develop and sell wound-care products based on nanofiber technology.

The new joint venture called Nanopeutics will be a Czech-registered limited liability company headquartered in Liberec, east Bohemia. It will be headed by Ladislav Mareš, Elmarco´s chief executive officer (CEO) and Camillus Glover, chief operational officer (COO) of Alltracel.

Elmarco developed Nanospider, a technology allowing for the industrial production of nanofiber materials for health care and other market. It has also cooperated with Alltracel for a year on developing of its trademarked M.doc technology, an injury care and healing technology that stops bleeding.

Nanopeutics, which holds intellectual property rights and licenses for the nanotechnologies and wound-care products, will introduce and sell the products on the worldwide markets.

“Nanopeutics is now a priority business development focus for Alltracel and represents our bridgehead into the E 10 billion [Kč 283 million] professional wound-care sector,” said Alltracel CEO Tony Richardson in an Oct. 11 company statement. Richardson called setting up of the joint venture “a significant move for Alltracel “into both advanced consumer and professional wound-care markets.In the joint venture, Elmarco will focus on further development of Nanospider technology and material production, while Alltracel will use its know-how for international marketing and sales of the products, said Pavel Novotný, the deputy head of Elmarco, who will also serve as an executive director in Nanopeutics. “The roles of both partners will mingle in order to make a full use of the potential and business contacts of the companies,” Novotný said in a phone interview.

Elmarco and Alltracel announced the intention to create a joint venture in July this year but didn’t specify the name or the country where the new company will be located (see “Elmarco teams with Alltracel to sell nanofibers,” CBW, July 24, 2006.)

According to Novotný, the two companies decided to register Nanopeutics in the Czech Republic instead of Ireland because of higher tax relief for R&D activities in the country and an easier access to Elmarco development and production facilities.

Novotný said the company is in talks with international pharmaceutical firms and expects to close its first deals within three months, but declined to provide any estimates for expected revenues.

Nanospider technology was patented by Elmarco in 2005. It was developed the together with the Technical University of Liberec, North Bohemia. Elmarco is a limited liability company and doesn’t provide financial results.

Dublin-based Alltracel, which established its R&D subsidiary in the Czech Republic in 1997, is listed on London´s Alternative Investment Markets (AIM) since July 2001 and has a manufacturing center in Shenzhen, China.