Posted: November 11, 2008

(Nanowerk News) On Thursday November 6th, the supervisory council of the Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies (RUSNANO) recommended the board of directors to approve the investment in a medical project aimed at the development, design and building of high technological scientific and industrial beta complexes for the production of medical technology.

The goal of the project is to establish a home-grown high-tech production of medical technology for cascade filtration of blood plasma and related technologies for treating a range of diseases by removing harmful substances and destroying viruses from blood.

The project has a great social value, since it is directed towards the treatment of a number of widespread diseases, such as atherosclerosis, ischemic disease, breast pang, forward heart failure and acute toxicosis, which contribute to a higher mortality rate in Russia than in countries with mature economy. Around 1.5 mln people die from heart diseases in Russia each year.

Plasma cascade filtration is a high-tech method of cleansing blood, which makes it possible to selectively remove only viruses and harmful proteins, which are the reason for disease, preserving useful components of blood normally present. Today, cascade filtration is performed in only a few developed countries (Japan, Germany and Italy) using highly expensive fiber filtration technology, which has inevitably led to its inaccessibility for the bulk of the population even in these countries. The proposed technology of cascade filtration on flat track membranes – a world’s first – will make it possible to radically reduce the cost of the procedure and to make this treatment accessible more widely.

The investment transaction will be done in the Russian Federation. The project company’s operating activity will also be situated in Russia. RUSNANO is to invest 1.29 billion rubles in private company Trekpor Technology. The project will be implemented by the company’s subsidiary Nanocascade, a resident of a special economic zone specializing in emerging technologies in the science town of Dubna, in Moscow region.

The project will be realized in three stages spanning 6.5 years:

the first stage – creation of the production complex between 2009-2011; the second stage – business development using growing production capacities and output to planned production volumes 4.5 years after investment launch; the third stage - search of strategic investor and RUSNANO’s gradual withdrawal from the project one year after completion of the second stage.

’The urgency and social value of this project are out of doubt,’ says RUSNANO deputy director general Andrey Malyshev. ’This unique project deals with several high-tech spheres: medicine, nuclear physics and manufacturing of tools. Besides its medical applications, nano-filtration of liquid and gaseous media is increasingly used in various industrial segments, which in future will allow Trekpor Technology to develop an entire range of filtration technologies on the basis of track membranes.’

’Expanding medical nanotechnologies into wider use is a case for nearest future,’ believes Vladimir Conanov, chairman of Trekpor Technology’s board of directors. ’Implementing innovative projects aimed at establishing the production of next-generation medical technology, capable of blood plasma nano-filtration down to separation of protein molecules – will make it possible to solve a number of serious problems currently standing in the way of forming an innovative system of medical care on a national scale. We are pleased that our partner in the project is such a solid institute of development as RUSNANO.’