March 2010 Australian Oil & Gas Conference, Perth Convention Exhibition Centre, Perth, Australia

Healthcare IT system supplier EMIS has announced its intention to float
The flotation is seeking to raise £50m gross, or 25% of EMIS’ issued share capital, and EMIS said it is anticipated it will have a post-market cap ‘of approximately £200m’.

The company, which supplies software to 52% of GP practices in the UK, said its intention was to continue to grow EMIS through the rollout of EMIS Web.

However, it said the flotation would also provide opportunities for “bolt-on” acquisitions “to streamline and further enhance the service offering across EMIS’s customer base.”

Sean Riddell, chief executive, said EMIS had built a pre-eminent market position. “A flotation on AIM will position EMIS to take advantage of growth opportunities, broaden our shareholder base and further incentivise management,” he argued.

EMIS was set up in 1987 by two GPs based in North Yorkshire – Dr David Stables and Dr Peter Sowerby – and now has around 34m patient records held on its platform. It employs 780 people, mainly in the UK. In 2009, the company had a turnover of £58m, generating an operating profit of £15.8m.

www.emis-online.com

Datong wins £750,000 order for tracking and location technology to the US
The company, a designer and manufacturer of intelligence-gathering equipment, said although the order had previously been anticipated and reflected in management’s expectations for the current financial period, it is the largest single order won by Datong in the US for more than 18 months and “represents an important step in the performance recovery for the Americas market”.

Dean Blood, the chief executive, said: “We are extremely pleased to announce this significant contract win which reaffirms customer confidence in our solutions for this market.

“The board takes renewed comfort in the strength of Datong’s relationships with its key customers in the US, and the indicative scale of the opportunities for the medium and longer term in the region.” The United States represents Datong’s largest market.

www.datong.co.uk

British-US company Clean Coal is to carry out extensive underground tests
The tests will be conducted off Cromer and Humberside (on England’s East Coast) on coal seams that could create a major and long-term energy supply for the UK. Off Cromer alone, preliminary studies have suggested that there are enough reserves to produce all the energy needs of Norwich for at least 30 years.

Clean Coal chief executive Catherine Bond will tell the conference that studies have also suggested enough coal reserves off Humberside to produce half the energy needs of Grimsby and Hull over a similar period.

The North Sea has proved a treasure chest for the UK with its oil and gas reserves and is now offering new riches in its potential for windpower, underground coal gasification (UCG), carbon capture and gas storage. “UCG now merits serious investigation,” said Ms Bond. “This is an exciting and commercially viable development which can bring significant long-term benefit to the region.”

UCG is a method of converting deep seam coals into a combustible gas used for power generation, industrial heating, or the manufacture of hydrogen, syngas, chemical feedstocks, jet fuel or diesel fuel.

Such investment in the Southern North Sea is one of three topics for the Norwich conference; the others being windpower and gas.

www.cleancoalucg.com

Major milestone for CellCentric: licensing deal with Takeda Pharmaceuticals
Epigenetics specialist CellCentric, run by the able Dr Will West – has won its first major licence for a next generation novel epigenetic target programme.

The deal grants Takeda exclusive rights to develop and commercialise novel therapeutics against the target for cancer. In return, CellCentric receives an upfront payment, milestones and royalties in a package potentially worth in excess of $200m over the duration of the agreement.

Over 5 years the firm has built a strong position in harnessing emerging science and innovation in epigenetics. More recently Pharma have acknowledged that this is a key strategic area for novel therapeutics. This deal is a strong validation of CellCentric’s discovery approach.

Based on the royalties and milestones defined, the overall deal could be worth in excess of $200m to CellCentric over the course of the agreement. This is a pioneering deal for the emerging area of epigenetics, demonstrating the commercial interest in novel epigenetic targets beyond HDACs (histone deacetylases) and DNMTs (DNA methyltransferases). Therapeutic research will be initiated by Takeda’s Research Group. Many diseases including cancer involve a loss of cell fate control. In many cases this is associated with aberrant epigenetic changes to chromatin: dynamic modifications of DNA and its associated proteins, including histones. These epigenetic alterations are caused by a range of enzymes. Initial therapeutic interest has been focused on inhibiting HDAC and DNMTs.

Dr Hiroyuki Odaka, General Manager of the Pharmaceutical Research Division of Takeda said “Epigenetics is an important area for novel oncology therapeutics. This new agreement demonstrates our commitment to pioneering the best ways to treat cancer. “

Dr Will West, CEO of CellCentric added “This licence is a strong endorsement of the way we are approaching innovation in epigenetics. This is an area that is no longer seen as just interesting, but as a necessity for pharmaceutical companies growing their armoury for tackling intractable diseases such as cancer”.

Contact: Will West, CEO CellCentric - 01799 531 130 [e-mail]

Technical plastics group Carclo raised £3.5m through a placing to fund growth
The Yorkshire-based company, which has a diverse range of products including lighting for super cars and blood testing equipment, said trading in the second half of its financial year is continuing in line with its expectations.

“Divisional operating profits should be well ahead of the first half and underlying profits for the full year are expected to be at a broadly similar level to last year,” the group said.

The placing of 5% of its shares was achieved at no discount to the market price, and proceeds are being used to fund new opportunities, mainly at its Conductive Inkjet Technology (CIT) division.

In December CIT won a landmark deal to develop and launch a new touch screen for use in mobile phones. CIT, which prints “invisible” metal lines on plastic products such as touch screens and medical sensors, signed a deal worth up $2m (£1.2m) with US electronics heavyweight Atmel Corporation.

www.carlco.co.uk

Ark Therapeutics Group announces series of restructuring measures to extend cash
In mid-December 2009 it reported that its Cerepro programme was being delayed. This year, the company has begun consultations with employee representatives on headcount reductions in manufacturing, R&D and support staff, as well as reducing investment in non-core early stage research programmes.

In addition, after first pilot trial results show a change in its trial design is required, Ark has decided to put the development of Vitor on hold. The current review has focused on the need to continue the development of the company’s key strategic assets Cerepro and Trinam - principally, the gene-based medicine business with its fully developed adenoviral platform, the recognized biologics manufacturing capability and licensed facility in Kuopio, IP and stroke patents - and its rapidly growing wound care business.

The company’s operational focus will be on completing Cerepro and Trinam programmes and ensuring the key pre-clinical programmes in refractory angina (EG011), peripheral vascular disease (EG016) and fetal growth retardation (EG013) progress in Phase I/IIa development. The measures currently being implemented should mean that the company’s current cash will fund its operations into the second half of 2011.

On the same day as this cost cutting news was announced, Ark separately announced some good news that the first patient has been enrolled and treated in the Phase I/IIa trial of adenoviral short-form Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor-D (“VEGF-D”) in patients with refractory angina.

Dr David Eckland, R&D Director of Ark, said: “News of the product being successfully and uneventfully administered by NOGA catheter, directly to the ischemic heart muscle where increased blood flow is needed, is a major step forward both technically and in advanced biomedicine.” The company has over the past three months fallen from the mid-40 pence to mid-teens per share.

www.arktherapeutics.com

Scottish Venture Fund puts £2m into a fledgling hepatitis vaccines pioneer
Roslin-based BigDNA, which was spun out of the Moredun Institute three years ago, received £1m from private investors in Hong Kong and the Channel Islands, and match funding from the SVF.

The company will use the cash to fund a phase one clinical trial for its lead product, a hepatitis B vaccine, which it hopes to complete within the next three years.

BigDNA won the “best new life science company” prize at Scottish Enterprise’s life sciences awards, having won a similar prize from networking body Nexxus last year.

Chief executive John March said it was “very gratifying” that staff and managers from BigDNA had also chosen to invest in the company. He added: “They’re at the coal face so they’re probably best place to judge our potential.”

Louise Provan, of the SVF, said: “Despite the tough economic climate there continues to be fairly positive signs of investment in the life sciences sector in Scotland. BigDNA is a rising star in the industry. This investment demonstrates our confidence in this innovative young company, which we expect to grow and develop into a world-leader in vaccine development.”

BigDNA raised £1.5m in 2008 from Scottish Enterprise’s co-investment fund and a group of private investors, having previously raised £300,000 in venture capital funding. The firm was founded with a proof of concept award from Scottish Enterprise.

www.bigdna.com

Overall winner of the 2010 Rushlight Awards for environmental businesses is..
Biogen Greenfinch - which design, build, own and operate anaerobic digestion plants across the UK. In the food waste technology, they have three plants operational currently: at Ludlow in Shropshire, Twinwoods, Bedfordshire and Westwood in Northamptonshire.

They combine 30 years of anaerobic digestion with a strong farming heritage and this has resulted in a leading technology-based service for the treatment of organic waste.

Their plants are licensed to take a wide variety of different waste streams, including domestic and commercial food waste, food processing waste and farm materials. This includes waste that requires regulated disposal, such as liquid food wastes, sludges, abattoir waste and other animal by-products.

The food waste is then broken down and pasteurized to kill any harmful bacteria, in the process producing methane which is captured and used to power a combined heat and power plant, generating anywhere between 0.75MW and 2MW of renewable electricity or enough to power continuously up to about 3,000 homes.

The remaining digestate is a biofertiliser that can be applied back on the land, replacing fossil-fuel-derived fertilizers. Biogen Greenfinch’s commercialisation of anaerobic digestion makes it a viable option for supermarkets, catering businesses and local councils.

www.rushlightawards.co.uk

Micro gas turbine company Bladon Jets to lead to new consortium funded by TSB
A consortium led by micro gas turbine company Bladon Jets has secured investment from the Technology Strategy Board to develop an Ultra Lightweight Range Extender (ULRE) for next-generation electric vehicles.

The objective of the consortium, which includes luxury car maker Jaguar Land Rover and leading electrical machine company SR Drives, is to produce the world’s first commercially viable – and environmentally friendly – gas-turbine generator specifically for automotive applications.

The ULRE will incorporate a Bladon Jets patented axial-flow gas turbine engine coupled to a high-speed generator using SR Drives’ proprietary switched-reluctance technology.

Design of the ULRE’s packaging for integration into the vehicle will be overseen by engineers at Jaguar Land Rover.

Paul Barrett, executive chairman at Bladon Jets, said: ‘Winning this Technology Strategy Board award is a really significant event for Bladon Jets and for the future of low-carbon vehicle development in the UK.

www.bladonjets.com

BNL celebrate 40 years of manufacturing fully-moulded plastic bearings
The company, based in Wetherby, North Yorkshire, now has subsidiaries in the US, Japan and Thailand. Neil Partlett, manager at BNL, said “During a long and illustrious history, BNL has been a pioneer in its field and enjoys a worldwide reputation as a provider of innovative plastic bearing solutions.”

The company has gone through many phases in its time and currently it is expanding geographically so that it can provide a better service to its global customer base.

BNL’s initial product range of lubricant-free thermoplastic rolling element bearings were key components for products such as conveyors, food processing equipment and furniture, to name a few.

The injection moulding process allowed BNL to swiftly move from producing standard radial bearings, to integrating moulded bearing tracks into pulleys, skate wheels and end caps and subsequently moving into more complex moulded bearing designs and assemblies for applications such as photocopiers, security cameras, postal automation and ATMs that can be seen in BNL’s current product range.

The company has gained various awards during its 40 years, including the Queens Award for Export Achievement. BNL has also been a Ricoh Europe ‘Class A’ supplier six times, a status achieved by providing 100% on-time deliveries with zero defects.

www.bnl-bearings.com

Cable monitoring firm CableSense secures funding from variety of sources
CableSense was formed in 2009 following a collaboration with DKR Electrical Ltd, the University of Lancaster and the University of Manchester.

The company has developed an innovative new approach to managing large scale, structured cabling systems, and the NWDA’s grant is designed to accelerate the delivery of its proposition to market. CableSense’s solution is differentiated by being readily retro-fittable, at a low cost, to existing cabling installations.

The system utilises CableSense’s proprietary technology for network cable monitoring, scanning and mapping. This substantially reduces many of the costs of maintaining and running a structured cabling network, including the cost and complexity of moves, making additions and changes, fault indetificaion and diagnosis, inventory management and capital expenditure through the identification and re-use of redundant equipment and capacity.

CableSense hardware and software technology is retro-fitable and enables the mapping and monitoring of the cabling infrastructure of most IT networks. CableSense is based in InfoLab 21, on campus at the University of Lancaster and has benefited from substantial input from Prof Anthony Peyton, now with the School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at the University of Manchester, who remains with the company as Research Director.

In recent months CableSense won a £213,000 Grant for Research and Development by the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA), and also secured a £500,000 equity investment from North West technology investment specialists, MTI Partners, through the UMIP Premier Fund (UPF), in November 2009.

www.infolab21.lancs.ac.uk

Half century landmark reached by R&D firm Cambridge Consultants
The company described as “those experts of disruptive technologies” by The Financial Times, celebrates its 50th year in 2010. Established by three Cambridge University graduates in 1960, the company has grown into a world leading technology product development firm, employing over 300 engineers, technologists and scientists at offices in both Cambridges, UK and Boston, USA.

The company’s work for both large multinationals and early stage start ups can be seen all around us, from the round tea bag you use to make your morning beverage, to the ground-to-air radio system used to control air traffic in US airspace; and from the Bluetooth chip in your mobile phone, to the ultra low-cost optoelectronics in one of the world’s most successful pregnancy testing kits. Its effect can also be seen in the wealth created by the 20 businesses it has spun out since 1975, including CSR, the world’s largest manufacturer of Bluetooth chips, and Xaar, Domino and Inca Digital, three of the world’s leading companies, founded on ink jet printing technology originally conceived at Cambridge Consultants. Combined, these four spin outs alone employ 3,500 people and generated more than $1billion in revenue in 2008.

Today it is an integral part of the Altran Group, an 18,000 strong global engineering firm with a presence in 26 countries and a turnover of more than €1.6bn. Indeed, in recognition of the company’s global impact, it was awarded the 2009 Queen’s Award for International Trade. With about 60% of its business coming from the US and Asia, Cambridge Consultants has matured into a truly global business, developing more inhalers than any pharmaceutical company, leading the way for smart energy management, and housing one of the world’s largest independent wireless development teams.

www.altran.com


As winter stretches into ‘spring’ – a new Coalmiser product is developed
In February 2010 Fibertech Ltd joined forces with the University of Nottingham to keep the home fires burning that bit longer.

Fibretech discovered that an alloy fibre it developed to silence exhausts in high-performance cars and bikes could increase the burn time of coal. With the help of scientists at the university’s Environmental Technology Centre, the fibre has now been turned into a product called Coalmiser.

Fibretech says the product – a metal pad which sits on the grate of a coal fire – can increase the burn time of an open coal fire by up to 30%. It’s reckoned that around 200,000 homes still use open fires for domestic heating, and Fibretech says that by using six pads over a winter lasting from September to May solid fuel users could save around £45 a month.

Lee Marston, the technology manager Fibretech, said: “The Coalmiser has been proven to reduce solid fuel consumption and lower carbon dioxide emissions. The average home would use five or six Coalmisers a year costing £9.99 each, but would save the average solid fuel user £45 per month.”

Fibtretech asked the university to test out Coalmiser, with Dr Mike Clifford and PhD student Joel Chaney working with Arthur Scott, from National Energy Action, to examine the product’s properties.

Dr Gerald Busca, project officer at the Environmental Technology Centre in Nottingham, explained that the device works by restricting the flow of air to the fire without significantly reducing the heat output. He said: “It restricts the airflow but we didn’t notice any real change in the fire temperature. On an open fire all the heat you receive is radiated outwards and you are talking about a small reduction on a high temperature. The other advantage this offfers is that because the mesh in the Coalmiser is tigther than you find in a normal grate, the smaller particles of charcoal will be fully burned before they can drop through.”

Open fires are among the most inefficient methods of domestic heating with much of the warmth lost up the chimney and significant amounts of unburnt fuel. The Coalmiser employs some of the principles of an enclosed fire, acting in the same way as an adjustable vent to control the airflow. It is developing a similar product for use in barbecues which will have a similar effect but also help cook food more evenly.

www.fibretech.com

NEWS IN BRIEF
Inspection and testing specialist Applus RTD UK secured its first contract with oil firm Maersk, worth more than £7.5 million over three years. The Aberdeen-based group said the agreement, which includes options to extend, would see it provide non-destructive testing, ship repair and rope access services to three of Maersk Oil’s North Sea facilities.
Pioneering Scottish communication technology company, Wireless Fibre Systems Ltd (WFS), has joined up with the Norway-headquartered international marine electronics leaders, Kongsberg Maritime, to develop a wireless system for location of and communication with the company’s unmanned underwater vehicles in ice conditions.

The €1.8m TILACSys project (Through-Ice Location and Communication System) will run for 24 months and deliver a demonstrator system that will be the world’s first of its kind. It is being supported with investment from the UK’s Technology Strategy Board and the Research Council of Norway.

www.wirelessfibre.co.uk
Zyoxel, the Oxford University spinout behind the technology, claims its TissueFlex microbioreactor could speed up the drug development process and save the global pharmaceutical industry $8bn (£4.9bn) per year.

The technology is expected to be on the market in the next six months following a recent £1m investment from Hong Kong multinational CN Innovations Holdings. Zyoxel said the TissueFlex microbioreactor builds three dimensional tissues inside a transparent container that contains gel-like scaffolding.

www.ibme.ox.ac.uk
Start-up AlertMe.com has announced an agreement to test a service that will allow British Gas New Energy consumers to control their home heating systems from the web or mobile phone.

AlertMe makes a home energy-monitoring system built around a Zigbee home-area network. A cube-shaped hub acts as a central control point and separate devices, including smart plugs, communicate with the hub.

The British Gas trial, which is expected to be available by the end of the year, is designed to allow people to program their home heating systems to shave down their bills.

AlertMe, which raised £8m in venture capital earlier this year, is developing a system for controlling home electricity use and home security systems as well.

UNIVERSITY NEWS
City University’s annual Research Competition picks its winners
Academics from the School of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences and the School of Arts won funding for their new research ideas. There were 13 presentations given to a panel of external judges, many of which were interdisciplinary, in response to the introduction this year of an additional prize for the best interdisciplinary proposal as part of City’s first Interdisciplinary Week.

Dr Justin Phillips, a Lecturer in Biomedical Engineering from the School of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, took the overall prize of £40,000 in funding, to develop a novel sensor for the noninvasive detection of anaemia.

A prototype device will be developed at City’s Biomedical Engineering laboratory in collaboration with Professor Panicos Kyriacou, and will be clinically evaluated with Professor Richard Langford and Dr Serene Chang of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital.

www.city.ac.uk