NanoViricides Inc. (NNVC)

[FORZANANO]

CONNECTICUT October 2008
http://carolebass.com/samples/CT_Mag_nano_Oct08.pdf

New York-based Lux Research
projects that by 2014, 15 percent of manufactured
goods—a global market of $2.6 trillion—
will incorporate nanotechnology.


Viricides is one of perhaps a dozen small
Connecticut companies striving to carve a
niche in the growing but still nascent field of
nanotechnology.
Some, like NanoViricides, are working in
nanomedicine. Others, like Inframat and its
sister company U.S. Nanocorp, both based in
Farmington, are developing nano-enabled
materials for uses as diverse as fuel cells,
Navy propellers and filters to clean up contaminated
water. While government officials
talk about creating an infrastructure to make
Connecticut a nanotech leader, the scientist/
entrepreneurs who run these companies are
trying to forge their own paths.
NanoViricides is publicly traded. Inframat’s
financing relies heavily on military
contracts and overseas partners. Neither has
access to venture capital.
“I’ve been called a VC without the C,” says
Inframat co-founder and chief executive David
Reisner. “We have a mix of technologies
and applications, and we never know until
the last minute what the front-runner’s going
to be. We knew it would take about five years
to develop individual products. But nobody
in the nanotechnology community realized
how difficult it would be to get these great
products into the marketplace. Acceptance
is very slow.”
The Ph.D.s who work in nanotech like to
say that their technology is “very simple.”
To a layperson, the technical explanations
are actually quite complicated, but basically
nanotech is the science of creating and manipulating
materials at the scale of molecules
and atoms. (Nano, from the Greek for dwarf,
literally means “one-billionth part of.”) At
that size, ordinary substances like carbon
and common metals take on extraordinary
properties, such as becoming water-soluble,
conducting electricity and catalyzing chemical
reactions. Those novel characteristics give
nanomaterials their value.
The tiny materials are becoming big business.
The U.S. government spends about $1.5
billion yearly on nanoresearch. The consumer
market already boasts more than 600 nanocontaining
products worldwide, from stainresistant
fabrics to sunscreen that turns clear
on your skin. New York-based Lux Research
projects that by 2014, 15 percent of manufactured
goods—a global market of $2.6 trillion—
will incorporate nanotechnology.
With its research universities and educated
population, Connecticut should be wellsituated
to grab a piece of that expanding pie,
the state’s Advisory Council on Nanotechnology
figures. But, the council warned in
2006, “The need to act is urgent because the
pace of technology advancement is fast, the
competition is aggressive and we risk falling
behind.”
The state’s nano strategy includes industry-
university collaboration, small-business
October 2008 CONNECTICUT 45
grants