11 March 2008, Sydney: Biosignal Limited (ASX:BOS) will exclusively license the worldwide rights in wound and hospital hygiene anti-bacterial products to a second United States spin-out company to be led by high profile entrepreneur Mr Paul Hawken. Mr Hawken will create a new corporate entity, raise money and commercialise the intellectual property.
This is the second US spin-out company announced today by Biosignal to rapidly commercialise its technology in very receptive US investment markets.
Consideration for the licence to Biosignal will include an upfront licence fee of $US 500,000 and 50 percent revenue share as well as 50 percent share of the proceeds on any future sale of the new entity but will not hold equity in that company.
A condition precedent is that the new entity will raise a minimum of $US 2 million against a minimum valuation of $US 7 million within 12 months of a signed license agreement. The license agreement is expected to take one month to finalise.
The mandate for the new company will be to both prevent and treat topical and wound infections in hospitals and other residential care facilities. Prevention will be targeted by developing anti-bacterial treatments for surfaces in hospitals including walls, floors, benches, operating room surfaces, equipment and instruments. Wound infections will be targeted directly by topical treatments such as ointments, rinses and treatments for dressings for wounds. The scope excludes implanted or inserted biomaterials.
Mr Hawken will establish the new entity in the US and will be executive chair and CEO. He has agreed to performance criteria for the new company including:
$US 2 million to be raised within 12 months Agreement on minimum revenue to Biosignal
“This new entity brings more investment to Biosignal’s technology and will fast track applications the company could otherwise not develop in the short or medium term. Shareholders get a major share of the cash and upside without any dilution,” said Prof Peter Steinberg, managing director and CEO of Biosignal.
“In the US there is a clean technology investment revolution that people call Cleantech. Having spent many weeks in the US in the past six months there has been considerable interest in Biosignal as a highly prospective Cleantech company.
“With this second spin-out and the industrial applications spin-out announced earlier today, investors are seeing us hit the accelerator pedal on product commercialisation. We are very pleased to have Paul Hawken on board for these first two spin-outs as we believe that through Paul we can involve a group of entrepreneurs who can rapidly bring product to market in specific niches.
“These two deals validate the company’s strategy announced in December to spin out product applications in a way which brings dedicated investment and establishes product specific management. We see substantial potential for maximising value in the future using this approach, given that the applications announced today only represent a fraction of the potential applications of Biosignal’s technology.”
Improvements to the licensed intellectual property will be owned by the party that creates the improvement. Improvements of the intellectual property made by the new company will be licensed to Biosignal on a royalty free non-exclusive basis for use outside the industrial field.
About Paul Hawken
Mr Hawken has been responsible for a number of successful business start-ups and best selling books. Companies he has founded or co-founded include Metacode, a software company specialising in proprietary content management tools; Smith & Hawken, the garden and catalogue retailer; and several of the first natural food companies in the US that relied solely on sustainable agricultural methods. He is presently the head of the Pax Group, a licensee of Pax Scientific focused on energy-saving technologies that apply biomimicry to fluid dynamics.
His book Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution co-authored with Amory Lovins is published in fourteen languages and has been read by several heads of state including President Bill Clinton who called it one of the five most important books in the world. His books have been published in over 50 countries in 27 languages and have sold over 2 million copies.
Enquiries: Peter Steinberg Rudi Michelson (02) 9209-4106 Monsoon Communications 0422 048 730 0411 402 737 p.steinberg@biosignal.com.au rudim@monsoon.com.au
About Biosignal and the anti-biofilm technology
Biosignal is commercialising a stunningly distinctive anti-bacterial technology. This technology is proving highly effective across applications ranging from industrial to medical products. Biosignal is spinning out two US companies to accelerate commercialisation. These companies are developing industrial and wound healing products. The first products are expected to be launched in 2009.
Biosignal’s anti-biofilm technology is based on a discovery that the eastern Australian seaweed Delisea pulchra produces natural furanones that disable bacteria’s ability to colonise. The fundamental problem with existing anti-bacterials, including antibiotics, is bacterial resistance. Bacteria rapidly produce resistant strains when faced with strong selective pressure by biocides. Furanones lull bacteria to inaction and appear to avoid the problem of bacterial resistance.
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