Burdica Biomedical Limited (BBL) is a high growth medical device/biotechnology company using hyaluronic acid (HA) based technology platforms to develop several new products in key markets including: reproductive health, aesthetics, urology and wound care. BBL has unique expertise in the field of advanced medical biopolymers which have the advantage of being biocompatible and degradable in nature. Their use in the medical arena is relatively new, but already there is strong market uptake for research and product demand.
The Company proposes to maximise its intellectual property (IP) as well as its operations and technology capability, by taking it's first two products to market within 12 months and it's thrid, higher value products to market within a 2 year timeframe
Kevin Burd is an engineer with over 15 years experience in Lifescience technology and operations management. He began work with Baxter Healthcare in the US, moving to Scotland in 2003 as Head of Operations for the Mentor Corporation. Working together with BBL's co-founder (Dr Zhao) at Mentor, they advanced the product and process which led to a successful international launch of Puragen?, an injectable filler for the cosmetic anti-ageing market. Within three years sales grew to over $10 million per annum with distribution in over 70 countries. Recently Kevin has been listed as a global industry leader and expert by the "Society of Industry Leaders" which is part of the Standard and Poors Index of New York. He is interviewed by medical and cosmetic journals on a weekly basis regarding the industry focus and future.
Guest Commentator for Burdica Ltd will be:-
Dr Howard Marriage joined the pharma/biotech industry in 1973 gaining bench to board room experience, including Genzyme and Cyclacel In 2004 he formed Biotech Innovation & Furture Health(www.bifhit.com) to participate in company formations and growth. He is currently a Director of 4 Life Science companies and the Entrepreneur in Residence, Edinburgh University, College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine.
2nd Presenting Company - Exxelis Ltd.
Exxelis is a young and dynamic start up, developing materials, processes and components for datacomm and display industries.
Exxelis is a leading innovator of optical materials and illumination systems, improving the performance and driving down the cost of LCD displays in laptops, mobile handsets and Flat Panel TVs.
The company is developing high performance LCD optical films and novel backlighting solutions which addresses the key issues of cost, performance, size & weight. In addition to our optical microstructured films, we are able to provide unique optical materials which are suitable for a wide range of applications, including optical interconnects and device encapsulation.
Exxelis is nearly 3 years old, UK-based provider of novel optical materials and solutions, targeting high volume display applications in laptops, mobile handsets and LCD TVs. This builds on our existing expertise in polymer materials and optical interconnects which are now at the production stage.
Liquid Crystal Displays are the dominant technology in cell-phones, laptops, PC monitors and flat screen TVs, with $Bns invested in materials & fabrication plants. The company is developing micro-structured light-guide films which address the key issues of cost, performance, size & weight for LCD backlight modules. This technology is based on several years of polymer materials development at Heriot-Watt University. The company has its own R&D / pilot production facility located at ETTC Biospace in Edinburgh and a production and customer support operation in Taiwan.
Currently the company is looking to further strengthen its expertise in new and improved functional polymeric or special nano-composite materials.
Dr Navin Suyal was a co-founder of Terahertz Photonics before founding Exxelis Ltd in 2004. Navin holds a Master of Technologu degree in Materials from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and a Dr. Ing. degree form the Liebnitz of New Materils, Saarbruecken, Germany. As well as considerables research and development expereince, Navin has optical fiber production experience through 3 years in a start-up company. He joined Heriot Watt University in early 1999 to work on the synthesis of novel optical photo-polymer formulations and their development in optical waveguides, which forms the basis of the technology Exxelis is commercialising.
Guest Commentator for Exxelis will be:-
Arthur Slight - Targeting Innovation Ltd Arthur is a Senior Consultant with Targeting Innovation providing commercialisation support and innovation consultancy for companies and the public sector. He has a strong background in both academia and business and is an experienced business adviser, particularly in opto/micro electronics and emerging technologies.
Following an initial academic career as lecturer and researcher in physics, Arthur acquired extensive practical experience as a Director and Manager organising and developing best practice innovation in large and small industrial companies within the Pilkington Group operating in defence and communications markets. He was involved in the creation and maintenance of academic contacts and technology transfer as an with institutions in UK, USA and Europe, and has also been a member of a number of UK government technical advisory committees.
He was for many years an assessor and project monitor of technologically innovative applications from academic groups, supported through Scottish Enterprise’s Proof of Concept fund. Currently he provides due diligence support for Scottish Enterprise on projects applying for R&D grant support, much of which is aimed at supporting large companies to develop R&D resources in Scotland, based on strategic and innovative industrial research. Arthur also proposed and led the successful and innovative project, Systematic Inventive Thinking, under the Scottish Innovative Actions programme.
At present Arthur is a Royal academy of Engineering Visiting Professor in the University of Strathclyde, lecturing on the Management of Technological Innovation and providing support for projects under the Product Design Engineering Partnership in the Design Manufacturing Engineering Management Department. He is an external examiner of business plan projects for the MEng degree at Glasgow University.
We would like to thank our co-sponsors - Strathclyde University Incubator Ltd - for supporting this event
Strathclyde University Incubator Limited
The first foothold in the commercial world is widely regarded as the most difficult for any company, but nearly 120 start-up and early stage businesses have successfully taken that crucial step with help from SUI. High-flying performers include Microlase, one of SUI’s first clients (involved in Opto-electronics) who later merged to become part of Coherent; Vibtech Limited which recently sold for approximately £40m; Yellowfin who developed a revolutionary propulsion system; and most recently Cascade Technologies, who have been developing real time gas detection systems. In all, companies emerging from the Incubator have gone on to create over 500 jobs within these early stage companies.
A pioneering company in its own right, SUI was Scotland’s original business incubator, launched in January 1990. Since then SUI has worked primarily, but not exclusively, with technology-led businesses, providing a professional environment conducive to sustainable growth. The broad range of support services includes assistance in raising funding, business plan development and expert office management. Access to such practical back-up and SUI’s proven ability to tap into relevant commercial experience gives clients greater freedom to focus on growing their business.
SUI has also established its own spin-out venture, Upstarts, which invests pre-start businesses, in order to bring them to a stage that allows them to attract further equity investment from larger financial organisations.
The strong board of directors, network of entrepreneurs and group of shareholders which includes the University of Strathclyde, Scottish Enterprise, Lloyds TSB and venture capitalists Gresham House plc, help ensure that SUI is ideally positioned to foster successful new businesses.
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