Biocompatibles

In the 1970s Dennis Chapman (1927–1999) at London's Royal Free Hospital. Chapman and his colleagues were responsible for groundbreaking research in the area of biocompatibility – the ability of a material to interface within the body without provoking an adverse biological response. They identified phosphoryl-choline (PC), a substance present in the human cell membrane, as one of the primary natural materials responsible for biocompatibility.

In 1984 Chapman founded Biocompatibles, which then patented PC technology to develop it for commercial healthcare applications. In 2002, the company expanded to a new field based upon embolisation therapy, a minimally invasive treatment for tumours or vascular malformations based upon compressible PVA embolic microspheres.

Biocompatibles has been publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange since 1995[4] (LSE:BII).

In 2010, the company was acquired by BTG plc for about 156 million pounds.[5]

Biocompatibles has a patent portfolio defending three biomedical polymer systems.

• The NFil Technology licensed from the Biocure affiliate of Novartis' Ciba Vision subsidiary, which is used in the Drug-Eluting Beads programme;

• The CellMed alginate technology, CellBeads, which is required for the encapsulation of biological agents; and the PC technology that was the group's original platform;

• A variety of more product-specific drug delivery inventions for the delivery of both chemical and biological agents.

Research and products are centered on the controlled and accurate delivery of drugs to patients suffering from certain forms of cancer or vascular problems. Research is focused on the use of drug-eluting beads, which can be accurately delivered to the point of need. Once metabolized, these beads release the prescribed drug at a pre-determined rate.