EDMONTON, ALBERTA--(Marketwired - Nov. 12, 2015) - Ceapro Inc. (TSX VENTURE:CZO) ("Ceapro" or the "Company"), a growth-stage biotechnology company focused on the development and commercialization of active ingredients for healthcare and cosmetic industries, announced today that the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) through its Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP) has made a contribution of up to $350,000 for the development, demonstration and testing of Ceapro's PGX technology.
The main objective of the grant is to support salaries of researchers dedicated to the building of a fully functional skid in Alberta for processing a wide range of feedstock using the PGX equipment. The implementation of PGX at a commercial and demonstration scale could potentially generate multiple novel bio-based products with improved purity and functionality and has the potential to impact the growth of the Canadian bio-industrial sector.
Gilles Gagnon, M.Sc., MBA, President and CEO of Ceapro, remarked, "We are very pleased to receive another recognition as an endorsement of the potential of the PGX Technology resulting in this additional funding contribution made by the Canadian Government. This recognition, along with the one previously announced from the Government of Alberta, coupled with the very encouraging results we are consistently achieving, provides the basis of our decision to implement the PGX Technology within our new upcoming manufacturing site which will now strategically be further expanded to fully exploit our unique and disruptive PGX platform."
Ceapro's researchers will focus their main activities at completing the design of process equipment, fabricate and commission the demonstration skid, testing of biopolymer samples, assess and determine the biopolymers with the best value proposition for further development and commercialization.
In addition to in-house applications that have been developed with beta glucan using the PGX technology, the other expected deliverable will be a system that will allow assessment of various materials originating from different companies or organizations on a worldwide basis.
About Pressurized Gas eXpanded Liquid Technology (PGX)
PGX is a unique and disruptive technology with several key advantages over conventional drying and purification technologies that can be used to process biopolymers into high-value nano-sized polymer structures and novel bio-nanocomposites. PGX is ideally suited for processing challenging high-molecular weight water soluble bio-polymers and has the ability to make ultra-light, highly porous polymer structures on a continuous basis, which is not possible using today's conventional technologies. PGX was co-invented by Ceapro researcher Dr. Bernhard Siefried and University of Alberta professor, Dr. Feral Temelli.
About Ceapro Inc.
Ceapro Inc. is a Canadian biotechnology company involved in the development of proprietary extraction technology and the application of this technology to the production of extracts and "active ingredients" from oats and other renewable plant resources. Ceapro adds further value to its extracts by supporting their use in cosmeceutical, nutraceutical, and therapeutics products for humans and animals. The Company has a broad range of expertise in natural product chemistry, microbiology, biochemistry, immunology and process engineering. These skills merge in the fields of active ingredients, biopharmaceuticals and drug-delivery solutions. For more information on Ceapro, please visit the Company's website at www.ceapro.com.
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Source: Ceapro Inc.