GreenBank Capital Inc (CSE:GBC) has announced that its biotech portfolio company CodiKoat Ltd has delivered a groundbreaking biosafety product to solve a significant public touchscreen health hazard.
Furthermore, in support of delivering this groundbreaking public health solution, GreenBank Capital said the Cambridge-based biotech firm has entered into partnerships with two market-leading UK-based manufacturers, BDK and Keeling & Walker.
In partnering with both these companies, GreenBank Capital said Codikoat's aim is to now produce a fully transparent adhesive film that, once administered, offers sanitizing protection without interfering with the displays of touch screen devices.
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Keeling & Walker produces specialist pigments that form part of the protective coating for the adhesive film, while medical technology manufacturer BDK delivers printing and production of the adhesive film.
CodiKoat's antimicrobial innovation, based on a hyper-durable coating nanotechnology that deactivates virus particles in seconds, can be used to treat heavily used public surfaces, such as ATM and fast-food self-service screens, which often play host to a staggering array of harmful viruses and bacteria, including E. coli and the coronavirus.
GreenBank Capital said that tests conducted by the Microbiology department at London Metropolitan University found that touchscreens in fast-food restaurants can carry traces of numerous harmful or unsanitary substances, and even staphylococcus, a bacterium that can cause blood poisoning and toxic shock syndrome.
"From supermarket checkouts to public transport and even air travel, there is a growing reliance on self-service and touchscreen machines in our daily lives," the company said in a statement. "These devices can be used thousands of times per day but even the most robust cleaning procedures in use today still rely on often-ineffective human intervention. Constant re-sanitization is a serious resource drain for businesses, who could not possibly hope to clean the devices after every use."
GreenBank Capital said CodiKoat has provided a solution to this, with its product being self-cleaning, durable, and offering the same outstanding ongoing protection for users no matter how frequently it's used. A prototype of the adhesive film product was previously tested at London's Royal Opera House, where a pilot scheme saw samples touched over 2 million times over three months, with no measurable drop in its antiviral capabilities.
During its development, CodiKoat underwent highly rigorous laboratory tests carried out at University College London under the supervision of the university's highly regarded Virology Research Services arm, on which the CodiKoat-treated acetate film was found to kill 90% of the human coronavirus within two seconds and over 99% within 10 seconds.
"We are understandably very excited about this latest development from CodiKoat," said Terry Pullen, CEO of GreenBank Capital.
"We saw great promise and a fantastic market opportunity for this young company and its management when we invested in the firm last year and have seen the efficacy and recognition for the public health potential of its product grow at a significant pace and scale. We look forward to continuing to work closely with this incredibly innovative firm and moving its product into the next stage of its rollout."
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