This will be multivalent antibiotics delivered on nanoparticles, said Midatech's Storme Thornicroft. The group's listed pipeline includes a project coded MTL 201 that involves antibiotics for the treatment of the 'superbug' methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).

It has also received an Exceptional Project Development Grant from the UK's Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) for the exploration and development of antibiotics on nanoparticles for the treatment of MRSA.

According to Midatech's pipeline overview, MTL 201 is currently at the in vitro proof of concept stage. Using nanoparticles as carriers should allow lower and more effective doses of antibiotics, the group notes.

Midatech has also made some progress in finding development partners for its biocompatible nanocells based on a process for synthesising self-assembled nanoparticles originally developed at the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC) in Seville.

The group "is currently in discussions with a number of large pharma and medium-sized pharma [companies] regarding collaboration and joint-partnering agreements following a series of Material Transfer Agreements, which establish proof of concept," Thornicroft commented.

Midatech says it is prepared to license its intellectual property covering the design, production and use of nanoparticles to third parties, while retaining manufacturing rights.

These developments are of a piece with the recent opening of Midatech's 800 sq m production facility in Bilbao, Spain - billed as the world's first cGMP-grade plant for the manufacture of nanoparticles "at a scale commensurate with pharmaceutical applications."

According to Thornicroft, the new facility includes four units for production runs, with a three-day turnaround for each synthesis. The initial focus will be on the design and production of nanoparticles for Midatech's own research programmes, but Thornicroft confirmed that the group will be looking at contract manufacturing in the longer term.

Until now, laboratory-grade nanoparticles have been made for Midatech under contract by the CSIC in Seville.

Thornicroft believes the market potential for nanoparticles is "unlimited, since the pharmaceutical industry has not yet acknowledged the disruptive technology offered by nanotechnology for drug delivery."