The National Research Development Corporation (NRDC), a Government of India Enterprise of the Department of Scientific & Industrial Research (DSIR), ministry of science & technology, has transferred a nanotechnology-based gene delivery technique to American Bioscience Inc, USA.

According to the license agreement, this novel gene delivery technology uses Calcium Phosphate nanoparticles as a non-viral vector. The technology has been licensed for a total aggregate of payments upto US$ 3,45,000. In addition, the company will also pay a royalty. Professor A.N Maitra and his associates in the Department of Chemistry, University of Delhi, developed the technology.

Because of the recognized adverse effects of viral vectors and low transfection efficiency, gene therapy as therapeutic strategy has not yet made to clinical practice. This calcium phosphate nanoparticle-based technology has the potential advantages of being safe, cheap and higher transfection efficiency compared to other transfection technologies in laboratory studies.

The Agreement was signed between the Controller of American Bioscience Inc, USA and N.K Sharma, managing director, NRDC.

The NRDC is India's premier service enterprise whose business is to be the identifier, the carrier and the pilot of technology transfer. For over forty years, NRDC has played a key role in speeding the commercial applications of research and in effecting the transfer of technology from laboratory to enterprise. NRDC works in close conjunction with over 200 national R&D laboratories and has licensed over 2000 technologies for commercial exploitation, of which nearly 1000 are in production with a current annual turnover of about Rs 12,000 million (Rs 12 billion).