BioNeutral Group: saving lives, protecting the environment

Hospitals have developed a growing reputation over the past decade as a major source of infection, thanks mainly to media reports that highlight cases of people unfortunate enough to have suffered significant complications after undergoing a routine operation. MRSA (Meticillin-resistant Staphyloccus aereus) is seen as the main culprit and stories of patients losing limbs due to contracting MRSA after having had a minor operation have added to the public’s disquiet.

Of course, much of the tabloid press knows that more newspapers can be sold by highlighting the most extraordinary cases of those who contract hospital infections, and statistics show that in the UK deaths related to MRSA have actually started to decline during recent years. However, the latest data shows that MRSA-related deaths in the UK were still up by more than 50% in 2008 compared with their level at the start of the last decade.

Hospitals are likely to remain in need of every tool available to them in their struggle to fight MRSA as well as newly-emerging drug-resistant bacteria, and US life sciences firm BioNeutral Group is one business that plans to play its part.

New York-based BioNeutral Group is a small business with big prospects thanks to formulations it has developed to neutralise a range of contaminants, toxins and dangerous micro-organisms.

Currently, the firm focuses on two kinds of products: bioneutralisers and chemoneutralisers.

Based on its proprietary Ygiene platform formulation, the firm’s bioneutralisers disinfect, decontaminate and sterilize. These antimicrobials are designed to address the unmet needs of consumers and hospitals, and they also have industrial, security and military applications.

The firm makes some bold claims for Ygiene. It says that Ygiene can deliver more active ingredients than any other currently-available antimicrobial because the firm’s knowhow allows the formulation components to act as a latent source (or reservoir) of active ingredients.

This means that Ygiene can quickly kill MRSA as well as E.coli, salmonella and even the latest bacterial kid on the block Pan-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae (which could become as great a threat as MRSA).

BioNeutral also claims that Ygiene has a lasting power that far exceeds competitive products, but at the same time it is also a mild product in terms of corrosion. The firm says that in a demanding iron corrosion test it did not find a commercial antimicrobial product that is as noncorrosive as Ygiene; in fact, antimicrobials such as silver citrate, peracetic acid and bleach were found to be highly corrosive when compared to Ygiene.

Meanwhile, because it is a water-based technology Ygiene is environmentally friendly. Indeed, BioNeutral claims its antimicrobials are biodegradable, free of heavy metals, chlorine and phosphates, and even that they contain no ingredients that compete with the world’s food supply.

So confident is the firm about Ygiene that BioNeutral has had it tested by Dr Tierno, director of Microbiology and Immunology at the New York University Langone Medical Center, who is also known as “Dr Germ” thanks to his authoring of the book ‘The Secret Life of Germs’. He was impressed. “There is nothing better. There is nothing that works faster. There is nothing that has a more complete kill. There is nothing wider in spectrum. There is nothing that leaves the environment more green,” he said.

And last September, BioNeutral announced that independent laboratory test results conducted at Microbiotest, of Sterling, Virginia, demonstrated that Ygiene antimicrobial diluted 1:10 with water could totally eradicate the H1N1 Swine Flu virus within a minute on an unclean, soiled surface. At the time, BioNeutral’s CEO, Stephen Browand, said: “The validation of this rigorous testing protocol, which utilises real-world ‘soiled’ conditions in a 1 to 10 diluted form, is very exciting. What this will mean is that all countries worldwide will be able to afford an effective combatant to the H1N1 virus, even those with major economic challenges.”

BioNeutral’s chemoneutraliser products are aimed at dealing with toxic gas and odours as well as forming a core component of superior cleaners. Applications include tackling industrial pollution and environmental contaminants, as well as providing protection against weapons of mass destruction.

These chemoneutralisers are based on BioNeutral’s Ogiene formulations that are able to interact with harmful gases to make them safer.  These harmful gases include: formaldehyde; hydrogen cyanide; ammonia; carbon dioxide; sulphur dioxide; and nitrogen oxide.

Being a small business, BioNeutral’s management is aware of the need to protect its intellectual property, and not just through the filing of patents. The firm uses a number of manufacturers to make its products and it has ensured that none of these manufacturers know the entire production process required to make Ygiene or Ogiene-based products, according to BioNeutral’s chief scientist Dr Andrew Kielbania.

Meanwhile, while the firm’s patents are publicly available, it is continuously developing and improving its technologies and products.

Founded in 2003, BioNeutral has had its shares quoted on the US’s OTC Bulletin Board since February 2009. The group has 63 million shares in issue, 60% of which are owned by managers and insiders, but perhaps one of the most interesting investors in the business is the Chertoff Group.

Chertoff Group, which has been providing strategic advice to BioNeutral since last June, owns 10% of BioNeutral. Founded by former US Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, it is a security and risk management advisory firm that counsels corporate and government clients that need to address threats related to terrorism, fraud, cyber security, border protection and supply chain security.

From the outset, the firm planned to engage contract manufacturers to both make finished products that would then be resold through distributors as well as supplying BioNeutral components that could be sold on to third-party brands that would use these components within their own products for mass distribution.

BioNeutral’s last set of the results, covering the three months ended 31 July 2009, showed that it made sales of $2,825 during the quarter, while it made a net loss of $1.4m. However, in mid-January this year, Kielbania confirmed that the business had $2m remaining in the bank and was expecting $500,000 in payments relating to Oygiene-based products within “a couple of weeks”.

Clearly, BioNeutral and its products are still at an early stage of commercialisation. But given the facts that its technologies have been very well received by the scientific community and that it has been able to attract investment and advice from an organisation that is close to the top echelons of government and corporate America, it is certainly worth keeping an eye on. Potential investors should watch out for news of contracts for both Ygiene and Ogiene in the near future.