BioMatNet Item: Commercial Success of ECLAIR Programme - Overview

Commercial Success of ECLAIR Programme
Overview - 5. Industrial Participation

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FAIR-CT98-4822 Commercial Success of the ECLAIR Programme

This report on the Commercial Success of ECLAIR Programme 1999 was produced in 1999 by CPL Scientific under contract FAIR-CT98-4822. The Project Summary and Project Reports are available in separate items.

Preface
Executive Summary
Overview
1. Introduction
2. Information Collection
3. Assessment of Commercial Success
4. Sectors, Technology and Markets
5. Industrial Participation
6. Impact of Science and Technology on Commercial Development
7. Political and Legislative Environment
8. ECLAIR in the Context of European Research and Development
9. Conclusions

Overview

5. Industrial Participation

As indicated in Section 3, those projects with strong industrial participation were more successful in bringing products to market. Of the original industrial coordinators or participants, the following are now selling products, have products close to the market, or continued trials and/or research in some way associated with or developed from the ECLAIR programme.

As illustrated in Table 7, industrial coordinators were responsible for this further development towards the market place in 10 (or 11 if a subsidiary participant is regarded as the same company as the coordinating owner) out of 16 projects in this category.

In a number of other projects, as illustrated in Table 8, changes occurred in the ownership or commercial status of the original industrial partner(s), who similarly took the project towards the market place but under a different name. In these instances the original participants (usually under another name) are still associated with the products. In this category around half the companies affected were the original coordinators, in the rest they were participants.

Table 7. Products from ECLAIR developed by the original industrial participant

Contract/Role	Company	Product
AGRE-0009/Coordinator	Aquaculture Vaccines Ltd (UK)	Oral vaccines for fish
AGRE-0012/Coordinator	Chr. Hansen's Laboratorium A/S (DK)	Wine inoculant
AGRE-0014/Coordinator	Chemunex SA (FR)	Scanner
AGRE-0019/Participant	Agrifutur (IT)	Soil inoculant
AGRE-0038/Participant	Lyven SA (FR) – subsidiary of coordinators	Enzymes
AGRE-0060/Coordinator	Vitro Hellas SA (GR)	Viral tests and 'clean' plants
AGRE-0064/Participant	Centro Sperimentale del Latte (IT)	Cheese starter culture
AGRE-0067/Participants	Cultigar SL (ES) / Coillte (IE)	Chestnut trees / Conifers
AGRE-0007/Coordinator	Sucre Recherches et Developpements = AgroIndustrie Researches et Developpements (ARD)	Galacturonic acid and derivatives
AGRE-0010/Participants	Robbe (FR), Hispano Quimica (ES)	Vegetable oil derivatives
AGRE-0050/Coordinator	Fiat (IT)	Natural fibre-based car parts
AGRE-0015/Participant	Tezier (FR) continued development	Ethylene control in fruit
AGRE-0044/Coordinator	St Regis (UK) continued development	Pulp and paper from straw
AGRE-0001/Coordinator	ECSA Research (UK) materials in trials	Chipping potatoes
AGRE-0020/Coordinator	Eurogentec SA (B), continued development and trials	Fish growth hormone
AGRE-0051/Coordinator	Koipesol SA (ES), continued research	Resistant chickpea germplasm

Table 8. Products from ECLAIR retained in successor groups

Original company/project (s)/ role	Became
Agricultural Genetics Co Ltd/ AGRE-0002/Coordinator	Reformed as the MicroBio Group, with nematodes now sold by MicroBio Ltd.
Plant Genetic Systems (PGS)/ AGRE-0003/Coordinator	The university-based research-oriented company was acquired by AgrEvo (a Hoechst-Schering joint venture) for around 800 million Euro in 1996. Anticipated mergers may place this in Aventis, representing an amalgamation of Rhône-Poulenc and Hoechst, towards the end of 1999. Know-how and IPR relating to Bt transformation and genetics are a significant part of the assets acquired.
ICI plc (Imperial Chemical Industries)/ AGRE-0021/Participant; AGRE-0005/Participant	ICI (Seeds) was involved with several projects on transgenic plants trees or seeds that continued following the demerger to form Zeneca, including continuation of work on lignin modification, with some participation in further AIR and FAIR projects, as well as other plant protection related projects (novel anti-fungal proteins).
Biological Control Systems Ltd/ AGRE-0013/ Participant	Acquired by Agrisense (a joint venture between Phillips Petroleum and Dow Corning, US) to become Agrisense-BCS. Agrisense-BCS was bought by Biosys (US) in 1993, that in turn was acquired by the Thermo Trilogy Corporation (US) in 1997. Agrisense-BCS continues to sell pheromones.
BioEurope/ AGRE-0011/ Coordinator	In 1996 BioEurope (FR) became the research laboratory for the Solabia group, a cosmetics company, changing the emphasis from food flavours to cosmetic ingredients.
Duclos SA/ AGRE-0062/ Participant	Acquired by Bunting during the course of the project. In 1993 a joint venture (Ciba-Bunting) was formed. In 1996 Ciba merged with Sandoz to form Novartis and the UK-based beneficial insect company became known as Novartis BCM Ltd.
Zaadunie/ AGRE-0019/ Coordinator	Purchased by Sandoz to become S&G Seeds, and then Novartis Seeds, following merger of Sandoz and Ciba.

In other cases (Table 9), the original potential commercial partner (directly or indirectly, following acquisition), lost interest in (or sold off) the particular area of activity that had been funded under ECLAIR. In this case, only 40% of the projects were coordinated by the industries concerned.

Table 9. Results sold or moved to another group

Original company/ project(s)/role	Became
ICI plc (Imperial Chemical Industries)/ AGRE-0006/ Coordinator	ICI (Biological Products) demerged to form Zeneca from which the Biopol business was sold to Monsanto (US), now (1999) up for sale again as Monsanto concentrates on transgenic seeds.
Eureka Electronic Identification (Davy Mckee)/ AGRE-0004/Participant	Acquired and new owners lost interest in project that was then kept going by the coordinator (LQCAP, KU Leuven), with further EC funding and commercial development by Idento Electronics BV.
OWTC Ltd/ AGRE-0022/Participant	The University-owned company was merged with another and overall control of both acquired by Kvaerner (Norway), which was not interested in this area. Early commercialization was then through Neptune Europa Ltd that ceased trading. Johnston Environmental continued assessment and The Orkney Seaweed Company Ltd was established to commercialize products.
Tate and Lyle Research and Technology/ AGRE-0063/Participant	Closed down, university coordinator of the project, from Imperial College University of London, was one of the partners in a new venture capital development company (AGROL) set up to commercialize the results from ECLAIR.
Ovamass Ltd/ AGRE-0018/Coordinator	Acquired by Animal Biotechnology Cambridge during course of project, Became ABC as product was marketed as Mastercalf, then ABC Mastercalf, then Mastercalf, which ceased trading with assets sold to XY Inc (US), who formed XY UK Ltd, that revived Mastercalf Ltd as a new registration, but working in a different area of activity.

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Overview