Biocompatibles International plc was a

medical technology Health technology is defined by the World Health Organization as the "application of organized knowledge and skills in the form of devices, medicines, vaccines, procedures, and systems developed to solve a health problem and improve quality of liv ...

company in the field of drug-device combination products. It was acquired by

BTG plc BTG Limited is an international specialist healthcare company that is developing and commercialising products targeting critical care, cancer and other disorders. The current name was adopted when the British Technology Group changed its name on ...

in 2010, which was, in turn, acquired by

Boston Scientific Boston Scientific Corporation (BSC), headquartered in Marlborough, Massachusetts and incorporated in Delaware, is an American biotechnology and biomedical engineering firm and multinational manufacturer of medical devices used in interventional ...

in 2019. Approved

oncology Oncology is a branch of medicine that deals with the study, treatment, diagnosis, and prevention of cancer. A medical professional who practices oncology is an ''oncologist''. The name's Etymology, etymological origin is the Greek word ὄγ ...

products were supplied and marketed from facilities in

Farnham Farnham is a market town and civil parish in Surrey, England, around southwest of London. It is in the Borough of Waverley, close to the county border with Hampshire. The town is on the north branch of the River Wey, a tributary of the ...

, Surrey, UK and

Oxford, Connecticut Oxford is a residential town located in western New Haven County, Connecticut, United States. The town is part of the Naugatuck Valley Planning Region. The population was 12,706 at the 2020 Census. Oxford is the 26th-wealthiest town in the stat ...

. Products included drug-eluting bead products that are used in more than 35 countries for the treatment of primary

liver cancer Liver cancer, also known as hepatic cancer, primary hepatic cancer, or primary hepatic malignancy, is cancer that starts in the liver. Liver cancer can be primary in which the cancer starts in the liver, or it can be liver metastasis, or secondar ...

(HCC), liver metastases from

colorectal cancer Colorectal cancer (CRC), also known as bowel cancer, colon cancer, or rectal cancer, is the development of cancer from the Colon (anatomy), colon or rectum (parts of the large intestine). Signs and symptoms may include Lower gastrointestinal ...

and other cancers. The company supplied and marketed

brachytherapy Brachytherapy is a form of radiation therapy where a sealed radiation, radiation source is placed inside or next to the area requiring treatment. The word "brachytherapy" comes from the Ancient Greek, Greek word , meaning "short-distance" or "s ...

products (radiation-delivering seeds) that are used to treat

prostate cancer Prostate cancer is the neoplasm, uncontrolled growth of cells in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system below the bladder. Abnormal growth of the prostate tissue is usually detected through Screening (medicine), screening tests, ...

. Its UK research and development facilities were engaged in licensing and in new product development based on the company's core drug delivery technologies in the treatment of cancers. Its Cellmed unit in Alzenau, Germany, was developing a drug-eluting bead product for the treatment of stroke based on proprietary

stem cell In multicellular organisms, stem cells are undifferentiated or partially differentiated cells that can change into various types of cells and proliferate indefinitely to produce more of the same stem cell. They are the earliest type of cell ...

technology. Cellmed was also developing a

GLP-1 Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) is a 30- or 31-amino-acid-long peptide hormone deriving from tissue-specific posttranslational processing of the proglucagon peptide. It is produced and secreted by intestinal enteroendocrine L-cells and certai ...

analogue for the treatment of

diabetes Diabetes mellitus, commonly known as diabetes, is a group of common endocrine diseases characterized by sustained high blood sugar levels. Diabetes is due to either the pancreas not producing enough of the hormone insulin, or the cells of th ...

and

obesity Obesity is a medical condition, considered by multiple organizations to be a disease, in which excess Adipose tissue, body fat has accumulated to such an extent that it can potentially have negative effects on health. People are classifi ...

partnered with

AstraZeneca AstraZeneca plc () (AZ) is a British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company with its headquarters at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus in Cambridge, UK. It has a portfolio of products for major diseases in areas includi ...

. Biocompatibles had collaborative agreements with Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals Inc., Medtronic Inc. and

Merz Pharma Merz Pharma GmbH & Co. KGaA (also ''Merz Pharma KGaA'' or ''Merz'') is an internationally active family-owned company, headquartered in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Merz is the parent company of independent businesses in the fields of aesthetic me ...

History

In the 1970s Dennis Chapman (1927–1999) at London's

Royal Free Hospital The Royal Free Hospital (also known as the Royal Free) is a major teaching hospital in the Hampstead area of the London Borough of Camden. The hospital is part of the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, which also runs services at Barnet Ho ...

. Chapman and his colleagues were responsible for groundbreaking research in the area of

biocompatibility Biocompatibility is related to the behavior of biomaterials in various contexts. The term refers to the ability of a material to perform with an appropriate host response in a specific situation. The ambiguity of the term reflects the ongoin ...

– 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 The cell membrane (also known as the plasma membrane or cytoplasmic membrane, and historically referred to as the plasmalemma) is a biological membrane that separates and protects the interior of a cell from the outside environment (the extr ...

, as one of the primary natural materials responsible for

. In 1984 Chapman founded Biocompatibles, which patented PC technology to develop it for commercial healthcare applications. In 2002, the company expanded to a new field based upon

embolisation Embolization refers to the passage and lodging of an embolus within the bloodstream. It may be of natural origin ( pathological), in which sense it is also called embolism, for example a pulmonary embolism; or it may be artificially induced ...

therapy, a minimally invasive treatment for

tumors A neoplasm () is a type of abnormal and excessive growth of tissue. The process that occurs to form or produce a neoplasm is called neoplasia. The growth of a neoplasm is uncoordinated with that of the normal surrounding tissue, and persists ...

vascular malformation A vascular malformation is a type of vascular anomaly. They may cause aesthetic problems as they have a growth cycle, and can continue to grow throughout life. Vascular malformations of the brain include those involving capillaries, and those in ...

s based upon compressible PVA

embolic An embolism is the lodging of an embolus, a blockage-causing piece of material, inside a blood vessel. The embolus may be a blood clot (thrombus), a fat globule (fat embolism), a bubble of air or other gas (gas embolism), amniotic fluid (amniot ...

microspheres Microparticles are particles between 0.1 and 100 μm in size. Commercially available microparticles are available in a wide variety of materials, including ceramics, glass, polymers, and metals. Microparticles encountered in daily life includ ...

. Biocompatibles has been publicly traded on the

London Stock Exchange The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...

since 1995 (LSE:BII). In 2010, the company was acquired by BTG plc for about 156 million pounds. In 2019, its new parent company BTG was acquired by

for around US$4.2 billion.

The Technology

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.

Pharmaceutical products

Research and products are centered on the controlled and accurate delivery of drugs to patients with 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.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Biocompatibles Plc Biotechnology companies of the United Kingdom Multinational companies