Psivida signs development agreement with Japan's Itochu

Psivida (ASX: PSD) has signed its first agreement with a multinational company, partnering up with Japanese giant Itochu Corporation to develop and commercialise BioSilicon products in Japan and other Asian markets.

Although the terms of the agreement were not disclosed, Psivida said it would be working with Itochu to pursue Asian commercialisation opportunities for both its existing Biosilicon products -- including its lead product, radioisotope-doped silicon, Brachysil -- and new product opportunities.

"It is not finalised as yet whether they will distribute Brachsil in Asia," said chief executive Gavin Rezos. "There is potential under the terms of the agreement for them to be involved on an exclusive or non-exclusive basis for some products. We still have the potential to co-develop with another large Japanese company if we want to."

Rezos said that Psivida had established contacts in Japan three years ago, and that Itochu had heard about Psivida and its products through Psivida's major shareholder Kinetic. Doing business in Japan is a notoriously long-term process, but he said that negotiations on the collaboration took less than a year.

The companies will work to identify applications of Psivida's Biosilicon technology platform, including ingestible Biosilicon products.

"Itochu want to co-develop products so they can share IP," said Rezos. He said key areas for co-development are food technologies, electronic function, sensor function -- including diagnostics-- , nanomaterials, nanoelectronics and nanobiotechnology.

The agreement will also underpin other Biosilicon product development as part of ITOCHU's life sciences, environment, materials & processing, nanotechnology and healthcare projects.

Itochu is one of the largest companies in the world, with an annual turnover of US$87 billion. Although primarily focussed on telecommunications, IT, media and retail, they have been investing in biotech and nanomaterials through collaborations with the Institut Pasteur in France, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the US, and a co-parallel fund with New York biotech fund MPM.