Creating the 'smartest' chemistry

This "Best of Smart Awards" accolade, presented at the Bank of England on 4 July by its governor, Sir Eddie George, recognises continued significant achievement made by previous DTI Smart award winners.

The original awards, won by Ultrafine in 1989 and 1990, enabled the company to fund an R and D program for developing a new route to Morphine-6-Glucuronide (M-6-G), a metabolite of morphine that has greater efficacy and fewer side effects than morphine itself.

The first Smart award provided funding and recognised the innovative science of Ultrafine, helping the company build up the core of its business and demonstrate the scientific and commercial potential.

The second award funded further development and supporting work, enabling Ultrafine to patent its M-6-G synthesis process.

It has since licensed this new route to ML Laboratories, which are taking it through clinical trials, providing Ultrafine with potential milestone and royalty payments.

At the awards ceremony, Eddie George commented, "Many small firms have proved that innovation is the most effective way to address competition and to grow their business.

The Smart scheme is a valuable way in which the government encourages and facilitates such enterprise. The Bank has been involved in ensuring that innovative small firms can access appropriate finance and I am delighted that we are hosting the awards today." Feodor Scheinmann, founder of Ultrafine, stressed the importance of the Smart awards in the company's history in saying "The Smart Awards have given Ultrafine widespread credibility for high quality contract chemistry, research and custom synthesis services, using novel synthetic methods, in challenging areas of medicinal chemistry. This credibility has led to sustainable expansion and we are now able to provide rapid chemistry development from the fundamental research stage to production of phase 1 clinical trials materials "