ApaTech, a global leader in synthetic bone graft technologies, has won the Business Initiative Award at The Times Higher Education Supplement awards (‘THES’), recognizing the success of the Company’s commercial development, based on the rapidly accelerating sales of Actifuse, its unique bone grafting material. The award was announced on 29th November at The Grosvenor House Hotel in London, and is the 3rd major accolade for ApaTech in the past 3 months.
In September 2007 ApaTech was recognized as the fastest growing UK medical technology company when it was ranked 13th in the ‘The Sunday Times Microsoft Tech Track 100’. At the ensuing Tech Track awards dinner in November 2007 ApaTech was runner up in the Research and Development Award category, a notable achievement given the depth and breadth of science underpinning Britain’s fastest growing technology companies. These accolades follow ApaTech’s appearance in the Financial Times in August 2007, when it was ranked 9th in a UBS study of the UK’s fastest growing venture capital backed companies.
The THES award recognises the practical application of research from the Interdisciplinary Research Centre in Biomedical Materials at Queen Mary, University of London. This work, to design the optimum structure and chemistry of bone substitute materials, led to the development of ActifuseTM, the unique silicate substituted bone graft product. ApaTech now commercialises its products in 20 countries worldwide in a wide range of orthopaedic and spine surgery applications.
Commenting on today’s announcement, Simon Cartmell, Chief Executive Officer of ApaTech said: “This is a remarkable achievement given the breadth of research from all of the competing academic centres and companies at these awards. Our success is solidly based on technology leadership derived from the strong underlying science that is part of our heritage. Everyone involved with ApaTech is delighted to be part of this success story and very proud to be recognised, along with Queen Mary, University of London, by The Times Higher awards.”
Further Information:
ApaTech www.apatech.com Simon Cartmell, CEO 020 8731 4640 Simon.cartmell@apatech.com
Waughton www.waughton.com Robin Hepburn/Victoria Nicholson 020 7796 9999 rhepburn@waughton.com vnicholson@waughton.com
Notes to Editors:
About ApaTech
ApaTech Limited is a world leader in bone graft technologies. Founded in 2001 and based on research and intellectual property from Queen Mary, University, London, ApaTech has introduced a novel silicate substituted calcium phosphate bone graft material, ActifuseTM globally. The company believes that Actifuse is the first of a new class of synthetic bone graft material that combines osseo-conductive and osseo-stimulatory activities.
Actifuse has been shown to accelerate the rate and quality of bone formation and is available as a range of granule and microgranule formulations, including an Advanced Bone matriX, Actifuse ABX. Actifuse ABX is the next generation material, combining the biological benefits of Actifuse scaffold with placement and mouldability benefits.
The spin out of ApaTech from Queen Mary was funded by 3i, who have participated in all funding rounds and are the Company’s largest shareholder. To date the Company has raised £12.2m of equity, principally from 3i plc and MTI Partners, plus £3.5m of debt from Noble Ventures.
ApaTech has locations in Elstree, UK, Berlin, Germany and Foxborough, Mass, USA. The Company sells in the US, UK, Germany and 20 other countries around the world. More details can be found at the website, www.apatech.com
About The THES awards
The Times Higher Education Supplement is the UK’s most authoritative source of information about higher education. Designed specifically for professional people working in higher education and research, The Times Higher was founded in 1971 and has been online since 1995. More details can be found at the website, www.thes.co.uk/Awards/2007/
The awards aim to raise awareness of and reward the huge contribution British universities make to the economic and cultural health of the country. For ApaTech, this represents the acknowledgement of the company’s progress as a world leader in the pioneering arena of bone grafting technology. Queen Mary and ApaTech won the award despite fierce competition, as more than 90 per cent of UK universities entered in one category or more.
About Queen Mary, University of London
Queen Mary, University of London is one of the UK’s leading research-focused higher education institutions. Queen Mary featured in the top ten for UK universities with business links in the Higher Education Business and Community Interaction Survey report (published in 2006). With nine active spin-out companies, Queen Mary’s rate of commercial development from academic research is twice the national average. In 2008 Queen Mary will launch QM BioEnterprises Ltd, a new Bioscience Innovation Centre which will provide laboratories and offices designed specifically for start-up companies operating in the life sciences and technology sector www.qmul.ac.uk .
