BBSRC grants an Industrial Partner award to The University of Oxford
to Study PuriCore's ActiVita™ Agricultural Fungicide Solution
MALVERN, PENNSYLVANIA AND STAFFORD, UK, 1 February 2012- PuriCore(LSE: PURI), the water-based clean technology company, today announces the award of £500,000 by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) in a research grant to The University of Oxford to study PuriCore's ActiVita Agricultural Solution, a proprietary, environmentally safe fungicidal solution formulated for agricultural applications. The three-year grant will fund research focused on exploring the mode of action of the ActiVita solution on fungi that devastate major food crops, including wheat, rice, and maize. The research will be led by Sarah Gurr, PhD, Professor of Molecular Plant Pathology at The University of Oxford, a specialist in crop disease, plant pathogenic fungi, and fungal biotechnology.
Christopher Wightman, Executive Chairman, said:
"There is clearly a large and growing need to advance plant protection whilst ensuring the safety of food crops. The annual fungicide market is valued at approximately $12 billion worldwide, yet substantial crop loss due to pathogen infestation continues to be a major issue. Based on our research to-date, we believe that ActiVita could represent a significant scientific advancement in protecting important food crops from plant disease without causing harm to the plant or to the environment. This grant allows both Professor Gurr to continue her research and PuriCore to advance towards commercialisation of this highly effective and environmentally safe technology to improve global agricultural productivity and protect the food supply."
Sarah Gurr, PhD, Professor of Molecular Plant Pathology, at The University of Oxford, said:
"Extant fungal strains, and now even more aggressively threatening emerging strains, pose a serious threat to our annual harvests and so challenge global food security. Several fungi have become resistant to single-target site fungicides. Our research reveals that ActiVita is a potent antifungal and shows potential to protect plants from these devastating pathogens. We believe ActiVita could represent a major breakthrough as a safe and effective fungicide."
The BBSRC is funded by the UK Government's Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, with a 2011-2012 budget of £445 million to support approximately 1600 scientists and 2000 research students in universities and institutes in the UK.
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About the Fungicide Market
The global demand for food crops is increasing rapidly, as the population surpasses 7 billion, and correspondingly, the demand for fungicides to protect those crops increases. The fungicide market is expected to reach $12.1 billion in 2012, up from $8.3 billion in 20071. A third of all fungicides are used to treat cereal crops, including wheat, rice, and maize. Each crop is challenged by fungal pathogens: 10-30% of harvestable rice is lost to the rice blast fungus; 10-70% of harvestable wheat is lost due to stem rust infection; and 2-20% of harvestable maize is lost to corn smut.
About PuriCore
PuriCore plc (LSE: PURI) is a water-based clean technology company focused on developing and commercialising proprietary green solutions that safely, effectively and naturally kill infectious pathogens without causing harm to human health or the environment. The Company's products are used in a broad range of markets that depend upon controlling contamination, including food retail and foodservice, medical device disinfection, and wound care. The Company's technologies are proven to be safe, environmentally friendly, and fast acting against a broad range of infectious pathogens, including major public health threats of C.difficile, E.coli, HIV, Human and Animal Influenza (including H1N1 and H5N1), Legionella, MRSA, M.tuberculosis, Norovirus, and Salmonella. PuriCore is headquartered in Malvern, Pennsylvania, with operations in Stafford and Clevedon, UK.
To receive additional information on PuriCore, please visit our website at www.puricore.com, which does not form part of this press release.
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Certain statements made in this announcement are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are not historical facts but rather are based on the Company's current expectations, estimates, and projections about its industry; its beliefs; and assumptions. Words such as 'anticipates,' 'expects,' 'intends,' 'plans,' 'believes,' 'seeks,' 'estimates,' and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, some of which are beyond the Company's control, are difficult to predict, and could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or forecasted in the forward-looking statements. The Company cautions shareholders and prospective shareholders not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which reflect the view of the Company only as of the date of this announcement. The forward-looking statements made in this announcement relate only to events as of the date on which the statements are made. The Company will not undertake any obligation to release publicly any revisions or updates to these forward-looking statements to reflect events, circumstances, or unanticipated events occurring after the date of this announcement except as required by law or by any appropriate regulatory authority.
