High-profile agreements give Ambri global clout

Sydney biosensor specialist Ambri is leveraging newly-forged ties with two high-profile US corporates to negotiate lucrative R&D contracts with the US military.

The negotiations are likely to result in fresh contracts to develop sensing devices that can protect foot soldiers against biological and chemical weapons.

The new agreements are expected to far exceed the $3.2 million worth of R&D work that Ambri did for the US military between 1999 to 2001 when it was just another small start-up.

It has since formed a relationship with US corporate behemoths, Dow Corning and Genencor, and their involvement alters the negotiating equation, said Ambri senior vice-president and chief scientist Bruce Cornell.

Dow Corning and Genencor recently agreed to inject up to $15.7 million in equity in Ambri, in return for exclusive worldwide rights to Ambri's advanced membrane technology in markets outside Ambri's core area of professional human health care.

The move effectively brings Ambri into the US corporate establishment and goes a long way to lowering the sensitivity of granting US military work to a small foreign-based company.

"It makes everything much easier and the sums involved are much larger," said Cornell.

Besides increasing the US military's level of trust, the presence of the two US corporate heavyweights on Ambri's share register increases confidence that any devices flowing from the research can be manufactured in large volumes at short notice.

Cornell said the talks concerned "substantial licks of money" and would result not simply in funding Ambri's R&D but also create royalty streams from any civilian health products created by the research.

Ambri's expertise lies in sensor technology built around devices which mimic nerve cells attached to an electronic substrate.

It is this alliance of silicon and carbon technology which has attracted the interest of Dow Corning, which has silicon-oriented products, and biotech-based Genencor.

The military is interested in developing sensors which provide battlefield detection of chemical and biological weapons.

The work is likely to evolve from devices which provide soldiers with individual warning of such weapons to more advanced combinations of biology and electronics, which can transmit warnings from the battle zone to command centres.

The military work would ensure Ambri's technical capabilities remained at the cutting edge, said Ambri CEO Joe Shaw.

It also would provide access to a US research base with a world-leading group of over 1000 scientists working at the frontiers of commercialising biotechnology, he said.