Giltech Ltd
Winner of SMART and SPUR Awards
"We did not have enough funds to keep the business going while also developing two products. That is where the SMART Award came into its own. It is a very valuable award for a small company and it came at the right time."
The Way They Were
Dr Tom Gilchrist was a former ICI chemist lecturing in Strathclyde University's Bioengineering Unit when he took an interest in biomaterials, especially the use of different materials in wound dressings. In 1984 he left to start his own business but like many new businesses it did not have the money to develop all its ideas unaided. Dr Gilchrist was able to advance two new products with the help of both a SPUR and a SMART Award.
Wound management was changing. 'The whole purpose of a dressing has been to get the wound to dry up,' he said, 'but moist wounds healed better. A colleague in this area asked if I could produce a material which would do the job and I was able to come up with one derived from seaweed. It forms a gel and keeps the wound moist."
"That product is know used internationally in Europe, America, the Far East and Japan. It is in all the main markets and is a market leader of its kind for treatment of a range of wounds."
Using the SPUR Award
"More recently there have been problems in hospitals from wounds which become infected. More and more bacteria are becoming resistant to antibiotics so there is a greater emphasis on prevention rather than cure.
"I met someone who had devised water soluble glass. I started to put silver in this glass. If the glass is incorporated in a wound dressing, the glass dissolves giving off silver which is a strong anti-bacterial agent."
Because so much testing has to be done, it took five years from the concept to its launch in November 1995.
"There is a limit to how long you can finance such a project on your own in a small business", Gilchrist said. The solution was a SPUR Award. "It provided an important means to allow us to continue. In our field there is such a long lead time to market before you start getting any return from your money."
The innovation was extended from wounds to medical procedures involving tubes - another potential vehicle for bacteria - and the SPUR Award allowed that extension to be developed.
Using the SMART Award
But at the same time Dr Gilchrist came up with an idea for a new dialysis fluid for patients suffering from kidney failure.
"A form of treatment has come in during the last 10 years called peritoneal dialysis. It is growing in popularity, is more cost-effective, and it gives a patient freedom from being attached to a dialysis machine.
"It is growing in preference to haemo-dialysis but has several problems still to be resolved. One of the problems is in the dialysis fluid being used. Many of the patients who need dialysis are diabetic but one of the principal fluids contains glucose sugar.
"We have replaced the sugar with a protein derived from milk. We started developing these fluids in a small way but we did not have enough funds to keep the business going while also developing our innovative medical devices.
"That is where the SMART Award came into its own. It is a very valuable award for a small company and it came at the right time. It helped funding to a point where tests gave results."
The Effect of the Awards
It is only really at this point that a commercial partner can be sought.
"You have to demonstrate clinical efficacy before you get a partner coming in. As a result of all that work on dialysis-related clinical trials we now have the tried and tested product which is under evaluation by a major dialysis company.
The dialysis fluid will be licensed. This will allow Giltech to re-invest in R&D.
"That is what we do. Manufacturing will have only a minor role."
Giltech's initial two-wound management products based on infection control technology are now in the marketplace having received FDA approval. They were launched into the North American market during 1998.
More recently a large medical device group have taken on board the technology for applications in five of their divisions and the first products are now entering global markets.
Giltech employs 10 full-time staff, a part-timer and consultants. It works closely with university departments and supports two PhD students.
"This gives us access to high-tech instruments and procedures which we just cannot afford," said Gilchrist. "The students come in summer and spend a month or so with us.
"We have been very reliant on SMART and SPUR to get us to this point. As our products prove successful in the marketplace we have an expanding core income to use on further R&D."
Contact Details
Giltech Ltd
North Harbour Estate
Ayr
KA8 8BN
Contact: Dr Tom Gilchrist
Managing Director
Tel: 01292 264406
Fax: 01292 611900
E-mail:
innovation@giltech.demon.co.uk
Website:
www.giltech.biz
Smarter Scotland 
Scottish Enterprise 