Unidym, Inc., a majority owned subsidiary
of Arrowhead Research Corporation (NASDAQ: ARWR), announced today that it has
entered an exclusive license agreement with Nano-C for patents covering fullerene
derivatives. The license provides Nano-C exclusive rights to U.S. Patent No.
5,739,376 and foreign counterparts in the field of photovoltaics.
In recent years, researchers and companies seeking to commercialize novel thin
film Organic Photovoltaic (OPV) solar technologies have focused on using fullerene
derivatives as the n-type semiconductor in bulk heterojunction organic solar
cells. The use of fullerenes as the electron acceptor and transporter results
in higher quantum efficiencies of the cells.
“The ‘376 patent family covers many of the fullerene derivatives
used in OPV, including the widely used C60 and C70 PCBM compounds,” stated
Viktor Vejins, CEO of Nano-C. “We are delighted to add this patent to
our growing IP portfolio, which further strengthens our position in fullerene
manufacture, purification, separation and derivatization. As a fully integrated
supplier, the exclusive rights obtained by Nano-C under this agreement will
benefit our customers as they commercialize OPV-based devices.”
“We chose to execute this license agreement because we believe Nano-C
is the leader in fullerene technology and products for the emerging thin film
solar industry,” stated Mark Tilley, CEO of Unidym. “We are pleased
to enable Nano-C to unleash the potential of modified fullerenes in thin film
solar.”
Unidym will also cooperate with Nano-C to supply a variety of patented derivatives
to customers for uses beyond Photovoltaics. This cooperation will expand the
market for devices that use this family of patents. Terms of the agreement were
not disclosed.