Nanotechnology Now - Press Release: Nanostart Holding Curiox Establishes Sales Partnership in Korea with BioBud

Home > Press > Nanostart Holding Curiox Establishes Sales Partnership in Korea with BioBud

Abstract:
- First commercialization success for Curiox

- Further aggressive expansion planned in Asia

- Long-term sights set on EU and USA

Nanostart Holding Curiox Establishes Sales Partnership in Korea with BioBud

Frankfurt, Germany and Singapore | Posted on May 26th, 2008

Curiox Biosystems Pte. Ltd. of Singapore, an investment holding of Germany's Nanostart AG, has entered into a sales partnership agreement with Seoul-based BioBud Inc. covering the exclusive distribution of the Curiox DropArray Rinsing Station in the Republic of Korea. The patented technology platform from Curiox facilitates the convenient and cost-efficient miniaturization of aqueous bioassays for drug discovery and other life science applications. The technology from Curiox enables a thousand-fold reduction in the amount of material and reagent required while simultaneously reducing reaction time by a factor of ten.

Sales are expected to reach several million U.S. dollars over the next three years with potentially much larger revenues from new products currently in the development pipeline. Korea is one of most active countries in Asia in the biotech sector. According to the Bioindustry Association of Korea, the size of its biotech market was USD 2.7 billion in 2006, with an annual growth rate of approx. 18%. Curiox's DropArray product line is expected to take advantage of this rapidly growing market. Curiox's products will help Korean customers compete more effectively in this increasingly competitive market by reducing operating costs and time significantly, while enabling challenging research projects with limited samples and reagents.

Namyong Kim, CEO of Curiox, commented on the new agreement, 'BioBud is the first international distributor for Curiox. The distribution partnership represents an excellent opportunity for both companies, Curiox and BioBud. The distribution contract with a leading Korean biotech company, BioBud, shows the level of trust in, and superiority of, DropArray products in spite of our company's short history. BioBud's extensive network and understanding of the Korean biotech market is expected to provide the ideal partnership for Curiox to enter and capture this market.'

Jae Hoon Hwang, CEO of BioBud, added, 'I am extremely pleased about the partnership with Curiox. Its DropArray products will upgrade BioBud's status in the Korean biotech market while increasing its revenue from distribution. On the technical level, it is my pleasure to introduce such innovative products to the Korean market earlier than any other major countries and to offer this great opportunity to Korean researchers. I am confident that BioBud's significant customer database and experience in research will speed up market acceptance of DropArray products.'

Singapore and Korea are the first markets in which Curiox's DropArray product line is being launched. These markets provide a sufficient base of potential customers to provide reasonable revenues along with valuable feedback on the products. As a next step, Curiox intends to expand the distribution of its products to other countries in the Asia Pacific region such as Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Australia. This will be followed by Germany, the remainder of the European Union, and the USA.

'The aggressiveness with which Curiox is pushing forward with the commercialization of its products is amazing and illustrates the tremendous energy within this company. On the basis of this unique technology platform, we hope to be part of an exciting Asian success story,' said Marco Beckmann, CEO of Nanostart AG.

BioBud, founded in 2000 by renowned professors from top Korean medical schools, is one of the leading private biotech companies in Korea. It has successfully raised a significant amount of investment and received a number of top government research grants which have enabled proprietary technical innovations. Most notably, the company has recently obtained CE approval for its diagnostics kit in partnership with a company in the USA. Along with its diagnostics business, the company has a distribution business focusing on biological reagents and instruments.

####

About Curiox Biosystems Pte. Ltd.
Curiox Biosystems has a vision to accelerate the progress of life sciences and drug discovery through better miniaturization. Curiox is a bioinstrumentation company enabling the miniaturization of heterogeneous bioassay for researchers working in life sciences, drug discovery, and diagnostics. Curiox's patented miniaturization platform, DropArray(TM), provides up to 1,000 times savings in sample and reagent consumption, and up to 10 times reduction in assay time. The company is located at Biopolis in Singapore, the biomedical hub of Singapore and Southeast Asia. The company is a spin-off from Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) backed primarily by Nanostart and Exploit Technologies, the commercializing arm of Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR).

About Nanostart:

Nanostart AG is the world's leading nanotechnology investment company. The Frankfurt-based company provides venture capital financing for nanotechnology companies in various growth phases. It also provides the benefits of its experience and expertise to developers of financial instruments and to investors in the nanotechnology sector. For further information about the company, please visit www.nanostart.de.

Disclaimer:

This notice constitutes neither an offer to sell nor a solicitation of offers to purchase or subscribe to securities. There will be no public offering of securities of Nanostart AG in conjunction with the existing listing of its shares in the 'Entry Standard' segment of the regulated unofficial market (Freiverkehr) on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. This notice does not constitute a securities prospectus. Neither this notice nor the information contained within is intended for direct or indirect distribution within the United States of America, Canada, Australia or Japan.

For more information, please click here

Contacts:
Nanostart AG Public Relations
Dr. Hans Joachim Dürr Goethestrasse 26-28 D-60313
Frankfurt Germany
phone: +49 (0)69-21 93 96 111
fax: +49 (0)69-21 93 96 122

If you have a comment, please Contact us.

Issuers of news releases, not 7th Wave, Inc. or Nanotechnology Now, are solely responsible for the accuracy of the content.

Bookmark: