Life Sciences Firm Planning A Leathery Revolution
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A life sciences firm based in the north east of England is planning a revolution in the food and fashion sectors, which it hopes to achieve via the pharmaceutical industry.
3D Bio-Tissues, which is based in Newcastle, has already caused a stir with its patented supplement CityMix, from which it has proved possible to grow a steak in a lab without using animal serum.
Now, Business Live reports, the firm is planning to use the same process to grow leather artificially and is targeting bio-pharma companies in its endeavours. It wants to partner with enterprises working in areas such as gene therapy, stem cells and regenerative therapy.
This plan was announced in a statement to the Stock Exchange by parent group BSF Enterprise plc. It revealed partnerships have already been agreed with Benzol to distribute City-Mix in Germany, plus an unnamed Fortune 500 company with which “3DBT has also engaged directly” and is “one of the leading global suppliers to pharmaceutical companies”.
It added that “one of the world’s leading stem cell companies” is also considering using City-Mix.
Should the partnerships be successful, there may be widespread demand for the products, as this could have a major impact on the world of fashion, footwear and sport. It may, for example, make it possible for vegetarians and vegans to enjoy playing cricket with a ball made from synthetic leather.
The array of potential partnerships shows just how much potential new life sciences innovations have to change markets and open up new avenues of opportunity, provided the life science marketing supporting them is effective enough.
Work to create meat in a lab has been an idea many have pursued as a means of preventing the slaughter of animals for meat without everyone having to go vegetarian.
The world’s first lab-grown burger was developed at Maastricht University in the Netherlands ten years ago, with the product being cooked and presented at a news conference in London and tasted by various food researchers and critics.
Animal rights campaign group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals endorsed the development as a means of ending the farming of animals for meat.