News
Aitua Ltd Portfolio Company Innova Establishes Worldwide Distributor Network
13 December 2007
Aitua Ltd (“Aitua”), the life science IP commercialisation company, today announces that one of its portfolio companies, Innova Biosciences Limited (“Innova”), has just completed its seventh distributor agreement in the last two months. The latest agreement, with Funakoshi Co Ltd of Japan, will provide further global exposure for Innova’s products.
Innova supplies reagent kits and services to the life sciences industry. It develops products which help researchers to characterise new targets for diagnosis of diseases, as well as greatly simplifying laboratory procedures widely used in research, development and manufacturing environments.
The deal with Funakoshi Co Ltd will cover Japan and supplement the network of deals Innova has already completed with United Bioresearch Products, Australia; Gentaur Molecular Products (which has offices in France, Belgium, Germany, Holland, and Italy); Cedarlane Laboratories Ltd, Canada; BioGen Pte Ltd, Singapore; Biocom Biotech, South Africa and Novus Biologicals, Inc in the US. Innova will focus on management of the distributor relationships and sales in the UK.
Innova’s Chief Executive, Dr Nick Gee, commented: “This global exposure is terrific news. Entering new markets can be difficult due to the language and cultural barriers and time zone differences. By using established distributors with strong industry knowledge we are able to overcome all these problems. In addition, our distributors are able to provide us with invaluable feedback and market intelligence, which will assist Innova in developing its product pipeline.
Aitua’s support has enabled us to focus on the key issues for the growth of Innova. These distributor agreements are a major milestone in Innova’s development. We signed the US agreement with Novus Biologicals in October, and we are already seeing substantial orders from the US.”
Based on the Babraham Research Campus in Cambridge, UK, Innova is one of a portfolio of investments from Babraham with which Aitua was established in June 2006. Dr Catherine Beech, CEO of Aitua, said: “Innova’s Lightning-Link™ technology is an extremely exciting commercial opportunity. I am delighted that Innova is addressing global markets through these distributor agreements.”