Mr. Ross: The company Quadrant has been around since 1988. It has a very interesting technology platform which was originally based upon the stabilising properties of the naturally occurring sugar, trehalose. Trehalose is found in many organisms and is used in nature to enable these organisms to be preserved in extreme conditions of heat. One example of such an organism is the resurrection plant which has the ability to dry out in extreme conditions of heat and then, when you put it in water, it rehydrates and comes back to life again. Originally, Quadrant set out to harness this phenomenon and to research useful applications of the technology in stabilising unstable molecules. The aim was to develop processes which would allow the pharmaceutical industry to avoid freeze drying which may render fragile molecules, particularly complex proteins and peptides, inactive. One potential application identified early on was the provision of vaccines to the Third World in a dried-down format, thus avoiding the need for the costly cold chain distribution. This would enable vaccines to be rehydrated on site without any loss of biological activity. However, as happens in many early-stage companies, the scientists got extremely excited and looked at applying the technology to many different areas including processing dried food and capturing flavours and fragrances. Without doubt in the early days whilst innovative, Quadrant lacked focus. Having said this the company did successfully negotiate a diagnostic licensing deal with Becton Dickinson. In 1999 Becton Dickinson announced the launch of the BDProbeTec' ET System, a clinical instrument incorporating Quadrant's proprietary Q-T4sys technology, which is used for the in vitro diagnosis of infectious diseases. We anticipate that the royalty stream to Quadrant will increase as the use of this product line is expanded. Whilst this application is an important validation of the technology, the real value long term will result from the technology being applied to therapeutic products. I joined the company at the end of 1995. My background was with larger pharmaceutical companies, Hoffman-La Roche, Sandoz and Syntex. Prior to joining Quadrant I was on the Board of Celltech Group plc and successfully built Celltech Biologics, which was sold to Alusuisse Lonza in 1996. I looked at Quadrant and decided to focus activities purely on the healthcare sector in general and the drug delivery aspects of this technology in particular. From that time on, I've brought in a new management team, orientated the company towards the drug delivery sector, and licensed the technology to GlaxoWellcome and Pall Corporation. In 1998 the company was listed on the London Stock Exchange and we also acquired the privately held UK drug delivery company, Andaris. More recently, we've established joint venture companies with Elan Corporation and MicroDose Technologies, Inc.
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