It was announced today that Cork start-up, Sothic Bioscience, has won €10,000 as part of the annual Ireland Funds Business Plan Competition for their biosynthetic replacement of an animal-derived product used widely in the pharmaceutical and medical sectors.

Limulus Amebocyte Lysate (LAL) is an extract found in the distinctive blue blood of the horseshoe crab. It is the gold standard in validating every medicine or medical equipment for human use as LAL identifies whether products are endotoxins and pyrogen-free. 

Finding an alternative to LAL was a challenge that Founder and CEO Stephen Geary felt ready to undertake and here Sothic Bioscience was born.

Speaking at the Business Plan final in Google, CEO Stephen Geary said, "Winning this year’s Ireland Funds’ Business Plan Competition will have a transformative effect on our business. The money will allow us to jumpstart our Intellectual Property strategy as well as our R&D internally."

Judges at the event included Founder & Managing Partner at Atlantic Bridge Ventures - Brian Long, Associate at Highland Capital Europe - Will McMahon, Director of Strategy Google - Neil O’Herlihy, 
Chairman of The Ireland Funds - Ronan Foley, CEO of Blueface - Alan Foy, Executive Director at Innovation Academy - Barbara Diehl and Chair of the Judging Panel and Managing Partner of Ravensdale Capital LLC, Angela Moore.

Source: www.businessworld.ie