Monthly Archives: January 2020

New sanitizing technology is available to local schools, medical facilities, office buildings and other commercial or residential needs through WNC Sterile Solutions, said business owner Brandon Firestine.

Firestine said his company has entered into an exclusive contract with a Florida-based company called Durisan to distribute and service Western North Carolina with a patented sanitizing solution that is water-based, organic, non-chemical and EPA-approved.

Our germicidal fogging solution kills 99.9 percent of all bacteria, viruses, and germs on contact, mechanically, not chemically, Firestine said. This sanitizing continues to protect for up to 30 days. There is no other product on the market today that mechanically kills, and provides ongoing protection.

Firestine said WNC Sterile Solutions, which is based out of Lake Junaluska, began providing the germicide to the community on Wednesday, Jan. 15.

To use a product that is people friendly, planet friendly and pet friendly is something the entire community can be proud of, Firestine said. While WNC Sterile Solutions is the exclusive service provider in all of WNC, we are currently focused on supporting Haywood County businesses and residents at this time.

For more information, go online to https://wncsterilesolutions.com.

Excerpt from:

New sanitary technology is available in WNC | Business - The Mountaineer

Battery technolgy on an industrial scale that can supply instant power for consumers across entire regions of the country has arrived in Oklahoma. The technology presents new opportunities to supply reliable power to grids, but rules that will govern its future use still need to be developed.

Regulators are going to have to catch up with developers who are installing cutting-edge battery storage technology in Oklahoma to boost the amount of power available on the regions grid.

Developers of the Skeleton Creek project, which will go live in stages over the next two years, discussed that issue and other interesting facts about their plans as part of a renewable energy conference held this week in Oklahoma City.

Questions that must be resolved include defining how to establish nameplate capacities for battery storage projects and then how to use them to meet regional power demand needs that are ever-changing as more wind and solar capacity is added to grids.

Currently, natural gas-fired generating stations are a preferred way to supply that balancing power, but batteries could change that over time.

NextEra is building the Skeleton Creek project, expected to generate about 1.8 million megawatt hours of energy annually, in Garfield, Alfalfa and Major counties. When it opens, it will be the largest facility of its type in the world.

Its power will be bought by Western Farmers Electric Cooperative, which supplies energy to both the grid operated by the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) and to 21 distributive cooperatives across Oklahoma and parts of New Mexico it serves.

In 2018, it generated about 6 million megawatt hours of power, while its customers consumed nearly 13 million megawatt hours during the same period. It sells power to and buys power from the SPPs open market.

The SPPs grid covers all or parts of 13 states between the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi River valley between the Red River on Oklahomas south border and the U.S./Canadian borders.

Phased deployment

Skeleton Creek will become operational in phases.

The first piece, Skeleton Creek Wind, will be able to generate 250 megawatts of energy when it comes online this year.

Skeleton Creek Solar will be able to generate 250 megawatts of energy. It will come online in 2023 along with Skeleton Creek Energy, which will have the ability to store and furnish 200 megawatts of energy for four hours on a full charge.

Currently, there are very few regulations that cover the battery technology. But Casey Moye, a project director with NextEra, and Phillip Schaeffer, the principal resource planning engineer with

Western Farmers, remarked the SPP found itself in similar circumstance when large-scale wind projects were just beginning to get built.

Over time, SPP and its members developed and adopted rules enabling the technology to effectively be implemented into the system, and both men said they expect the same will happen again.

For now, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has issued an order that requires the SPP and other regional grid operators to develop rules to define nameplate capacities for storage projects (an important issue, as investment tax credits that help make them affordable are tied to that number).

The question of how much capacity is appropriate for battery storage products is still being debated across much of the country, Schaeffer said, adding that questions about how it will be used still must be resolved.

Many grid operators would prefer to just turn on a natural gas plant when a need for more power exists and to not have to deal with a new technology.

Moye and Schaeffer discussed the Skeleton Creek project in a breakout session that was part of the annual energy conference hosted by the

Oklahoma Association of Energy Engineers and the Oklahoma Renewable Energy Council.

Renewables key

Participants in other breakout sessions during the conference gathered to talk about other renewable energy technologies and programs.

This years conference, titled 2020, enVISION the Future, was held this week in Oklahoma City.

Tom Korpal, president of the engineers association and a district energy services leader for Trane, a subsidiary of Ingersoll Rand, helped open the conference by telling how his company is working to address global climate change and how far it hopes to get in the next decade.

Things will be more complex in 2030, Korpal said, noting current projections estimate the middle class will continue to grow and that urbanization trends will continue.

To meet those needs, energy engineers will be increasingly turning to using renewable sources of power.

It is about how we can interconnect our networks and build cities of the future in a sustainable manner, he said.

Opening session attendees also heard from Matthew Ellis, part of a team that is building electric vehicle charging stations across the southwest for Francis Solar.

Ellis told how his company successfully built and deployed a network of more than 250 fast chargers at about 110 locations across Oklahoma during the past few years and its future plans.

Our goal is to replicate this across surrounding states, he said.

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Rules have to catch up with technology - Examiner Enterprise

Famous tire and rubber company Goodyear has launched two new bicycle tyres, Eagle F1 and Eagle F1 Supersport utilizing graphene technology and weighing just 180g for a 23mm model.

The new Eagle F1 is an ultra-high-performance all-round road tire and the Eagle F1 Supersport, which is even lighter, is aimed at the upper echelons of competition and will be suited to road racing, time trial and triathlon where speed trumps all other requirements.

In the tire world, Vittoria has become well-known for adding the wonder material to its tires for several years, and Goodyear has followed suit with its new rubber compound.

Goodyear has developed a proprietary compound enhanced with graphene and next-generation amorphous (non-crystalline) spherical Silica to create what it labels Dynamic:GSR. The result of this is said to be a rubber that is able to deliver low rolling resistance, improved grip in the dry and wet and long-term durability.

The Eagle F1 comes in five width options from 23 to 32mm, while the Eagle F1 Supersport comes in three widths from 23 to 28mm.

To produce the new tire Goodyear has invested in its own factory in Taiwan and has developed a process that allows much greater control over the construction of the tire. It didnt share too many details, but it believes this enhanced precision contributes to significant weight savings.

Currently the new Eagle F1 and F1 Supersport are only available as clincher tube-type tires, but a tubeless tire is reportedly in the pipeline for a launch later this year.

The new tires will cost from 45 and be in shops in February.

Link:

Goodyear to launch bicycle tires with graphene technology - Graphene-Info

The Week In Technology, Jan. 27-31, 2020 | Aviation Week Network

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Eviations Alice catches fire; Boeing teams on ducted fans; Boom plans XB-1 flights; SkyDrive readies eVTOL; Bell demos cargo drone.

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To find out about obtaining additional data including the most comprehensive details on organizations, fleets, personnel and programs click here or call +1.561.279.4661.

As a subscriber to one of Aviation Week Networks market briefings, your searches only provide you with access to articles from within that product.

To find out about obtaining additional data including the most comprehensive details on organizations, fleets, personnel and programs click here or call +1.561.279.4661.

As a subscriber to one of Aviation Week Networks market briefings, your searches only provide you with access to articles from within that product.

To find out about obtaining additional data including the most comprehensive details on organizations, fleets, personnel and programs click here or call +1.561.279.4661.

As a subscriber to one of Aviation Week Networks market briefings, your searches only provide you with access to articles from within that product.

To find out about obtaining additional data including the most comprehensive details on organizations, fleets, personnel and programs click here or call +1.561.279.4661.

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The Week In Technology, Jan. 27-31, 2020 - Aviation Week

The Metropolitan police is to start using live facial recognition (LFR) cameras linked to powerful computers on Londons streets despite scepticism from experts over how efficient the system is and widespread concerns over civil liberties.

The Met rejected claims the scheme was a breathtaking assault on rights and claimed that 80% of people surveyed backed the move. It said the system would launch next month and would be aimed at catching serious criminals and tracking down missing persons.

However, some of its central claims came under fire from the expert it hired to scrutinise two years worth of trials. The Met said the system was 70% effective at spotting wanted suspects and falsely identified someone as wanted in one in a thousand cases. But Prof Pete Fussey an expert on surveillance from Essex University who conducted the only independent review of the Mets public trials on behalf on the force found it was verifiably accurate in just 19% of cases.

Fussey told The Guardian: I stand by our findings. I dont know how they get to 70%.

The Met said it would deploy the technology overtly and only after consulting communities in which it is to be used.

It said the cameras would be linked to a database of suspects uploaded using the latest intelligence. If the system detects someone who is not on the database, their information will be deleted in seconds. But if it generates an alert because the person is wanted, an officer will speak to them.

Using facial recognition linked to databases of suspects is potentially the next big leap for law enforcement, as big as the introduction of fingerprints, and police have been working on it for years. The security services are also hugely interested.

Nick Ephgrave, an assistant commissioner at the Met, said: As a modern police force, I believe that we have a duty to use new technologies to keep people safe in London. Independent research has shown that the public support us in this regard.

The Guardian understands the system is less effective at night-time and works best with good daylight. The Met said its system was less effective at scanning dense crowds.

The Met has made promises to the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, after an independent ethics review raised concerns over its earlier trials of facial recognition software. The system will not be linked to other official databases. It is not designed to allow the authorities to scan every corner of London or allow them to be confidently capable of tracking anyone down.

However, civil liberties groups immediately vowed to challenge the rollout in the courts, possibly before the Met can even deploy the system.

Silkie Carlo, the director of Big Brother Watch, called the move an enormous expansion of the surveillance state and a serious threat to civil liberties in the UK.

This is a breathtaking assault on our rights and we will challenge it, including by urgently considering next steps in our ongoing legal claim against the Met and the home secretary.

What is facial recognition?

This is a catch-all term for any technology that involves cataloguing and recognising human faces, typically by recording the unique ratios between an individuals facial features, such as eyes, nose and mouth.

Why is it in the news?

After a trial of the technology, London's Metropolitan police have said they willstart to use it in Londonwithin a month. On Friday, the force said it would be used to find suspects on watchlists for serious and violent crime, as well as to help find children and vulnerable people. Scotland Yard said the public would be aware of the surveillance, with the cameras being placed in open locations and officers handing out explanatory leaflets.

How is it used in policing?

The technology greatly improves the power of surveillance. At the simple end, a facial recognition system connected to a network of cameras can automatically track an individual as they move in and out of coverage, even if no other information is known about them. At the more complex end, a facial recognition system fuelled by a large database of labelled data can enable police to pinpoint a person of interest across a city of networked cameras.

Why is it controversial?

Facial recognition frequently sparks two distinct fears: that it will not work well enough, or that it will work too well.

The first concern highlights the fact that the technology, still in its infancy, is prone to false positives and false negatives, particularly when used with noisy imagery, such as that harvested from CCTV cameras installed years or decades ago. When that technology is used to arrest, convict or imprison people, on a possibly faulty basis, it can cause real harm. Worse, the errors are not evenly distributed; facial recognition systems have regularly been found to be inaccurate at identifying people with darker skin.

But the technology will improve, meaning the second concern is harder to shake. This is the fear that facial recognition inherently undermines freedom by enabling perfect surveillance of everyone, all the time. The fear is not hypothetical; already, Chinese cities have proudly used the technology to publicly shame citizens for jaywalking, or leaving the house in their pyjamas.

Alex HernTechnology editor

Allan Hogarth, from Amnesty International UK, said: The Mets decision to introduce facial recognition technology poses a huge threat to human rights.

This technology puts many human rights at risk, including the rights to privacy, non-discrimination, freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly.

This is no time to experiment with this powerful technology that is being used without adequate transparency, oversight and accountability.

Parliament has yet to bring in guidance balancing the potential security benefits of live facial recognition versus safeguards, which have been put in place for police use of fingerprints and DNA.

A spokesperson for the campaign group Liberty said: This is a dangerous, oppressive and completely unjustified move by the Met. Facial recognition technology gives the state unprecedented power to track and monitor any one of us, destroying our privacy and our free expression.

South Wales police already use live facial recognition. Last year, after a series of court cases, judges ruled in favour of the technology. The Met believe it paved the way for Fridays announcement, but a warning came from the office of the biometrics commissioner, Prof Paul Wiles: This is a step-change in the use of LFR by the UK police, given that the technology will be deployed fully operationally rather than on a trial basis.

Although the court found South Wales use of LFR to be consistent with the requirements of the Human Rights Act and data protection legislation, that judgment was specific to the particular circumstances in which South Wales police used their LFR system.

Ephgrave said the technology would not be used indiscriminately and that its initial use would be limited. The Met will begin operationally deploying LFR at locations where intelligence suggests we are most likely to locate serious offenders, he said. Each deployment will have a bespoke watch list, made up of images of wanted individuals, predominantly those wanted for serious and violent offences.

Khan endorsed the decision, but said it would be under constant review: New technology has a role in keeping Londoners safe, but its equally important that the Met are proportionate in the way it is deployed and are transparent about where and when it is used in order to retain the trust of all Londoners.

City Hall and the Ethics Panel will continue to monitor the use of facial recognition technology as part of their role in holding the Met to account.

The Labour mayor is up for re-election this year and is facing a challenge from the Liberal Democrats trying to outflank him from the left. They branded the scheme as Khans mass surveillance roll out.

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Met police to begin using live facial recognition cameras in London - The Guardian

As businesses across all industries collect vast quantities of personal information for artificial-intelligence applications, a unique law firm in Toronto wants to help them make the best use of that data without crossing legal or ethical boundaries.

Carole Piovesan left a senior role with McCarthy Ttrault LLPs data and privacy group last March, teaming up with long-time health privacy lawyer Mary Jane Dykeman to start INQ Data Law. The pair met at a conference, bonded over their shared passion for the world of data policy, went for breakfast together and within 90 minutes decided to launch the firm.

Now, less than a year after its debut, INQ has recruited three other lawyers, including recent hire Noel Corriveau, who is leaving the federal government after a high-profile role developing AI policy at the Treasury Board. He will put that experience to work on one of the firms main areas of focus: Marketing a framework for the responsible use of AI technology.

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The starting premise is that a lot of companies are nervous to experiment with AI systems, Ms. Piovesan says, adding that laws around data use are fluid and changing and being interpreted all the time." That makes it difficult for businesses to know what exactly they can do with technology such as machine-learning algorithms without raising concerns about personal privacy or the potential for bias.

In an example of an AI system running amok, a Reuters report from 2018 said Amazon.com Inc. shut down a program that used machine learning to scan and rate the resums of potential recruits. The report said the company stopped using the tool after it determined that the software favoured male applicants because it had been trained to look at resums submitted over the previous 10 years, most of which came from men.

Concerns about bias could also arise if AI tools that deal with sensitive issues such as credit ratings or immigration decisions are not designed carefully.

Yet, there is a commercial imperative," Ms. Piovesan says. Companies that have started experimenting with artificial intelligence today stand to benefit substantially from a commercial perspective, from a financial perspective.

The firm markets its AI framework to companies and government agencies, particularly targeting those that work in highly regulated sectors such as financial services, health care or insurance. It also seeks out companies that are actually building AI technology and who want to offer their own customers the reassurance that they have thought through some of the thornier issues around its use.

Ms. Dykeman is also a partner in a small health law firm, Dykeman & OBrien LLP, that she describes as a sister firm to the one she launched with Ms. Piovesan. INQ also advises clients on privacy law and cybersecurity.

Over the course of more than a decade with the federal government, working at both the Department of Justice and the Treasury Board, Mr. Corriveau began to focus on developing AI policy. At one point he worked on a small team under Canadas former chief information officer, Alex Benay.

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The group attracted international interest for building an algorithmic impact assessment tool, meant to assess the potential risk of AI programs before the government deploys them. The project was noteworthy in part because the team developed it using open-source methods, allowing anyone from around the world to go online and see the work being done or even put the tool to use themselves.

Mr. Benay left government for an AI startup, Mindbridge Analytics Inc., in August and shortly after that he moved on to consulting giant KPMG LLP.

Mr. Corriveau said his former boss empowered us to really be aggressive in our change agenda, and his decision to leave government was tied in part to Mr. Benays departure. Im very interested now in changing gears and working with INQ to keep driving that change, but in a way that responds to client demands," said Mr. Corriveau, who starts on Feb. 3.

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Unique Toronto law firm to focus on responsible use of AI technology - The Globe and Mail

This article is written for those who want to get better at using price to earnings ratios (P/E ratios). To keep it practical, well show how Lin Horn Technology Co., Ltd.s (GTSM:5464) P/E ratio could help you assess the value on offer. What is Lin Horn Technologys P/E ratio? Well, based on the last twelve months it is 8.75. In other words, at todays prices, investors are paying NT$8.75 for every NT$1 in prior year profit.

Check out our latest analysis for Lin Horn Technology

The formula for P/E is:

Price to Earnings Ratio = Share Price Earnings per Share (EPS)

Or for Lin Horn Technology:

P/E of 8.75 = TWD14.00 TWD1.60 (Based on the year to September 2019.)

A higher P/E ratio means that buyers have to pay a higher price for each TWD1 the company has earned over the last year. That is not a good or a bad thing per se, but a high P/E does imply buyers are optimistic about the future.

The P/E ratio indicates whether the market has higher or lower expectations of a company. The image below shows that Lin Horn Technology has a lower P/E than the average (15.9) P/E for companies in the electronic industry.

This suggests that market participants think Lin Horn Technology will underperform other companies in its industry. Many investors like to buy stocks when the market is pessimistic about their prospects. You should delve deeper. I like to check if company insiders have been buying or selling.

Probably the most important factor in determining what P/E a company trades on is the earnings growth. If earnings are growing quickly, then the E in the equation will increase faster than it would otherwise. Therefore, even if you pay a high multiple of earnings now, that multiple will become lower in the future. A lower P/E should indicate the stock is cheap relative to others and that may attract buyers.

Lin Horn Technology shrunk earnings per share by 20% over the last year. And it has shrunk its earnings per share by 2.7% per year over the last five years. This might lead to muted expectations.

The Price in P/E reflects the market capitalization of the company. In other words, it does not consider any debt or cash that the company may have on the balance sheet. Hypothetically, a company could reduce its future P/E ratio by spending its cash (or taking on debt) to achieve higher earnings.

Such spending might be good or bad, overall, but the key point here is that you need to look at debt to understand the P/E ratio in context.

With net cash of NT$366m, Lin Horn Technology has a very strong balance sheet, which may be important for its business. Having said that, at 37% of its market capitalization the cash hoard would contribute towards a higher P/E ratio.

Lin Horn Technology trades on a P/E ratio of 8.8, which is below the TW market average of 17.0. Falling earnings per share are likely to be keeping potential buyers away, the healthy balance sheet means the company retains potential for future growth. If that occurs, the current low P/E could prove to be temporary.

Investors should be looking to buy stocks that the market is wrong about. If it is underestimating a company, investors can make money by buying and holding the shares until the market corrects itself. We dont have analyst forecasts, but you could get a better understanding of its growth by checking out this more detailed historical graph of earnings, revenue and cash flow.

But note: Lin Horn Technology may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with strong recent earnings growth (and a P/E ratio below 20).

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.

We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.

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Do You Know What Lin Horn Technology Co., Ltd.s (GTSM:5464) P/E Ratio Means? - Simply Wall St

RAWALPINDI - The Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI) is going to organise a two-day Smart Technology Exhibition in Rawalpindi from February 3 to promote innovative technology smart solutions. The exhibition will be held at a local hotel in which renowned IT companies and Institutes from across Pakistan exhibit their products. RCCI President, Saboor Malik, informed that the major aim of this expo was to encourage the business community to be aware of the latest trends and promote the use of advanced technology in promoting trade. There is a need to raise awareness about the use of modern technology in Pakistan and to facilitate customers and encourage Pakistani IT companies. We have to equip us to meet the future challenges of technology and this is the right time to get latest information on Robotics, Business Automation, Smart Health Solutions, e-logistics and 3 D Technologies, he added. RCCI president further added that in Pakistan the IT industry had great potential and urged the government to provide favourable environment for the promotion of IT in different sectors including banking (e-banking), medicine (telemedicine) and manufacturing (e-designing).

With the increase of internet penetration in Pakistan, he said, the IT sector offered huge potential for local companies to join hands with multinational companies.

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RCCI to organise Smart Technology Exhibition on Feb 3 - The Nation

Stanimira KolevaYou may not have direct knowledge of 3D mapping company Here Technologies, but if you drive a smart car, the chances are that it is embedded with sophisticated maps built by this Amsterdam-based tech firm. A global leader in mapping and location services, Here Technologies is working to provide high-definition 3D maps that will be crucial for autonomous vehicles to be able to navigate roads safely. Yet, as the autonomous vehicle project has hit speed bumps worldwide, Here Technologies is switching gear to deploy its 3D mapping technology for more practical purposes like helping to manage smart cities and bringing more efficiency to last-mile delivery.Last year, Japanese firm Mitsubishi and telecom giant NTT acquired a 30 percent stake in Here, hoping to harness the companys strength to reduce traffic and improve efficiency. Following the deal, the two Japanese firms wi...

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Executive Column: We go beyond main cities in Indonesia: Here Technologies - Jakarta Post

Medical researchers have leveraged technology to create major breakthroughs in the past few decades, accelerating the understanding of diseases, and their causes and treatment.

Our accumulating knowledge also has accelerated the ability to translate science into practical therapies, but there are still many challenges: while researchers seek the right drug compounds that can target and deliver treatment for specific diseases, traditional drug innovation models can be slow and come with high costs.

Japans rising biotech company, PeptiDream, is tackling these issues, deploying a unique proprietary drug development technology and an innovative business model that will further research on and development and manufacture of peptides to deliver new medical therapies.

We really want to be a drug discovery engine, says CEO Patrick Reid.

Until recently, most advances in drug delivery have focused on small-molecule and large-molecule drugs, also known as antibodies. But now macrocyclic peptides are emerging as an important new avenue.

How are peptides different? Both small- and large- molecule drugs come with advantages and limitations. The small molecule drugs are chemically synthesized in a lab and taken as a pill or capsule, so the active ingredient is easily absorbed into the bloodstream.Because they are small, molecules can penetrate cell membranes, making these drugs highly effective. But they can be unstable and they break down in the body, creating unwanted side effects. Formulating these drugs to take on specific new targets also can be slow and expensive.

Protein-based therapeutics (large-molecule drugs) aremade by using living cells. They typically are not pills, but instead must be injected or infused. These large- molecule therapies, unlike the smaller-molecule drugs, cannot penetrate cells. But these drugs are easier to design for specific targets typically a cell-surface receptor on the outside of the cell. However, these therapies cannot reach all required targets, and they can stay in the body too long causing side effects.

Enter peptides, compounds that consist of amino acids linked together and can be synthesized in the lab. Pioneering research by Suga Hiroaki, PeptiDream co-founder and professor at the University of Tokyo, established a way to ensure that a new kind of peptide compound can remain stable in the body and find a range of therapeutic targets with high specificity. They can also be broken down by and cleared from the body with greater specificity, making them an important new development in pharmaceuticals.

And these macrocyclic peptides can be combined, using a much larger set of amino acids than occur in nature giving researchers the ability to experiment with many more combinations. PeptiDreams Peptide Discovery Platform System (PDPS) is a proprietary technology that allows drug researchers to make trillions of peptide libraries. Reid describes PeptiDream as platform company that enables his researchers and others to make the process of discovering hits the starting point for developing drugs more efficient.

We are not simply developing a single drug and trying to bring that all the way to approval; we are championing and developing an entirely new class of molecules, Reid says.

The platform has created an unusual set of collaborations for PeptiDream, whose drug discovery partnerships have included Merck, Bayer, Genentech and Novartis. This collaborative network has accelerated peptides development, Reid says, creating a large wave of compounds that should move into the clinic in the next few years.

Our network of partners has allowed PeptiDream to function as company ten to twenty times its actual size, he says. With more than 100 discovery programs in parallel across a wide range of diseases, targets and administration routes, we are expanding the knowledge, understanding and appreciation of these molecules in therapeutics and diagnostics and more.

It also was crucial that PeptiDream, as a startup, was able to focus on developing the platform for peptide drug discovery, something large pharmaceuticals had not done because of the cost and the long, uncertain time horizon. Japan embraced PeptiDream, initially as a largely bootstrapped company, and then when it went public in 2013, Reid says.

In the U.S. and Europe, we probably would have been pressured to borrow funds in order to grow faster, he says. Many companies in the U.S. with internal pipelines fail due to time and pressure constraints. They burn a lot of money very quickly.

PeptiDream is now a $7 billion company and is also a founding investor in a contract manufacturing company, PeptiStar. Collaboration with other companies is crucial, says PeptiStar CEO Kameyama Yutaka, as new ecosystems for research, manufacturing and supply of peptide drugs are developed. In fact, PeptiDream, together with other co-founding investors Shionogi and Sekisui Chemical, has attracted additional ten investors as active R&D collaborators.

In order to accelerate the practical application and market creation of peptide therapeutics as next-generation drugs beyond biopharmaceuticals, the Japanese government also supports PeptiStar, providing 9 billion-yen (about $83 million) grant as part of the governments program Cyclic Innovation for Clinical Empowerment, under the National Healthcare Policy. The money will allow PeptiStar, established in 2017, to become a leader in both scientific and business process innovation, says Kameyama.

The current capacity of peptide manufacturing is limited, and it could be a big bottleneck of peptide medicine developments, he says. This quick fundraising will accelerate the development and commercialization of our ability to prepare the peptide compounds. And the support they have given us will also encourage many other partners in the important development of peptides.

Peptides have not been around very long, and as with any new technology, there is room for improvement, including costs, Kameyama says. We want to make production cheaper and higher quality, and collaboration is a competitive advantage. If a company established its own manufacturing facility, it would take time and money. But with a joint venture like ours, the cost and the sharing of technology and knowledge are very different.

Both Reid and Kameyama credit the Japanese research and business ecosystem with their success. Professor Sugas breakthrough work is just one spinoff of innovation coming from Japanese universities, where a pool of highly skilled research workers has developed.

Japans challenge to create peptide drug market continues. To learn more click here.

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Note: All Japanese names in this article are given in the traditional Japanese order, with surname first.

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How a Japanese Biotech Company Is Innovating Drug Development Technologies - SPONSOR CONTENT FROM THE GOVERNMENT OF JAPAN - Harvard Business Review