Scottish Government

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'Today Iatros is recognised as a company with global potential. Support from SPUR andSPUR^PLUSAwards have assisted our small company to develop leading-edge technology to meet the demands of the market and regulatory bodies.'

The Way They Were

Iatros was founded a decade ago to support a consultant surgeon and an engineer in developing their ideas and experiments into an effective technology for the destruction of viruses in plasma sourced products such as albumin, immunoglobulin and coagulation factors required for infusion treatment of haemophilia. Initially funded by a group of Dundee investors, the company sought first to protect its ideas through a patent and to develop early stage devices to incorporate the fluid treatment systems.

The company established an early working relationship with transfusion authorities for testing of devices and worked with a number of significant institutions in the validation of its ideas.

Using the SPUR and SPUR^PLUS Awards

SPUR and SPUR^PLUS funding bridged the divide between working laboratory models and scaled-up technology that would meet the needs and stringent regulatory requirements of the market. Iatros explained: 'The SPUR Awards enabled the company to build upon its earlier R&D success and move towards the development of prototype systems that would meet the requirements of the licence granting authorities, especially regulatory standards in the areas of operation, control and process recording. Developing our systems to this level of compliance ensured that we met the expectations of our customer base.

'We were aware that the length of time that would be required to trial and evaluate processed fluids to demonstrate the reliability of our system would stretch the company's resources to breaking point. The SPUR^PLUS Award filled this funding gap which not only underpinned our testing programmes, but also enabled us to extend the development and application of our systems for other fluids including blood substitutes, whole blood and other optically dense fluids.'

The Effect of the SPUR and SPUR^PLUS Awards

Both the SPUR and SPUR^PLUS Awards helped Iatros reach a position in which it could establish development and collaboration agreements with blood transfusion services, protein fractionators and pharmaceutical companies to incorporate its technology into their production processes under licence.

Following this, the company explained: 'We were able to look to the wider application of our systems in the drinks, food and metal working industries where significant opportunities exist for a technology which can reliably treat contaminated fluids at low cost. With increasing Government regulation and ever more exacting standards being required by authorities, be they in blood products, food or waste water, we believe that our system will meet these requirements. The support provided through SPUR and SPUR^PLUS has been vital, and has resulted in systems and machines that work under regulatory conditions and at volumes appropriate to manufacturing processes.'

Contact: Mr David Mowat
Managing Director
Tel: 01382 562111
Fax: 01382 562583
Email: david_mowat@btconnect.com
www.iatrosltd.co.uk