Selling testing services around the world

It is like being able to detect something smaller than a postage stamp hidden in an area four times the size of St Stephen's Green.

Arqtech Laboratories was established in November 1996 and since then has developed a service relationship with the world's largest pharmaceutical companies including firms on the Continent, Britain, the US and Germany. "Our main business and the reason we set up was to test genetically-engineered pharmaceuticals for impurities," explains the company's managing director, Dr Michael Dawson.

In particular, the company tests for minute quantities of genetic material, DNA, left behind in drugs that are produced using biotechnology. Many modern drugs such as penicillin and insulin actually come from genetically-engineered organisms, for example bacteria. The changed organism produces the drug as a byproduct which can be harvested and purified. "During the process of purification you will have a small residual amount of DNA present," Dr Dawson says. This was very strictly regulated by international bodies such as the US Food and Drug Administration, so the pharmaceutical company had to test raw materials and finished products for the presence of residual DNA.

Test accuracy can be a problem, however. It is not sufficient to determine that DNA residues are present, it is necessary to know the quantity. The industry had struggled with the problem for some time, Dr Dawson explained, in an effort to develop a "robust" test that was both highly sensitive but also allowed levels to be quantified.

Arqtech has developed such a test and now sells its testing services around the world. "We get inquiries as far away as Australia and South Africa," he says. The companies, such as Organon which has plants in Swords, Co Dublin, and in the Netherlands, sent finished product or in-process samples to Arqtech and within two days the company could provide the residue details. "The reason they come to us is because we could get good results quickly," Dr Dawson says.

The key to success is in the test, which combines two technologies - genetic and nuclear - in a single process. It involves creating a DNA "tag" from the original bacterial or cell line DNA and then binding a radioactive substance to it. The tag's DNA sequence exactly matches the residue's DNA sequence and if residue is present it will lock itself to the tag. Arqtech then measures the amount of radiation and can calculate how much residue is present.

The test was incredibly sensitive, he says, and could detect residues down to less than one part per billion. "We have to do our work to very strict guidelines," he says and the client companies are very demanding. "There is nobody else in Ireland doing this," he adds, and fewer than half a dozen in the rest of the world.

The company currently employs two, but Dr Dawson expects this to rise to four by January next. It was just coming out of its start-up cycle, "a year or year-and-a-half of horror", he says, adding, "We are very optimistic about next year."

The company has quadrupled turnover each year, but is still running in the red. Trade was strong this year, he says, and break-even was on target for the end of 1998. Projected turnover for 1999 is £250,000, double the 1998 figure.

The company is based at the Campus Innovation Centre at NUI Galway and was established with the assistance of Forbairt. The initial DNA test procedure was developed while Dr Dawson was the head of a research group within BioResearch Ireland, although no connection with BRI remains. "I saw an opportunity to spin this off and BioResearch Ireland were happy for me to do so." He oversees the sales activity while the technical director, Mr David Dowdall, organises the ongoing research activity and handles the laboratory side. The company provides a range of microbial test services in areas such as water hygiene, water treatment, the health sector and sectors where sterile production rooms are required. Arqtech's latest research involved creating a test that could show whether a food contained genetically modified ingredients. There is great consumer sensitivity to GM foods and any cheap, accurate test that could show whether a food was modified would have enormous potential.

"We are looking at least at another six months before we can confidently go onto the market with that piece of work," he says. "We are trying to pursue it as quickly as possible."