The pharmaceutical industry has been under increasing pressure to deliver drugs to the market faster and more efficiently. In an effort to combat this, Dr Namyong Kim, who leads a team of scientists at the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN), under the Agency for Science, Technology, and Research (A*STAR) in Singapore developed the new bioassay technology called DropArray. 

The new bioassay technology is a miniaturization platform that can reduce the amount of material and reagent required to conduct a cell-based assay and reduce the reaction time. Curiox Biosystem's patent-pending miniaturization platform, DropArray, provides up to 25 times savings in sample and reagent consumption, and up to 60 percent reduction in assay time.

Targeting research labs and high-throughput screening facilities in life sciences and drug discovery where bioassays are a necessary part of the research process, Curiox Biosystems was founded in 2008, as a spin off from IBN, backed primarily by Nanostart AG, a venture capital firm in Germany, and Exploit Technologies, the commercialization arm of A*STAR.

Genesis

Curiox began its operations with an entrepreneurial team of four members. The founding team comprised experts in surface chemistry and engineering for the development of products; as well as an administrative officer to ensure smooth business operations of the company.

In the first year of its launch, Curiox received positive responses from its beta customers in Singapore, mainly from the research groups in the National University of Singapore (NUS), Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB), and Experimental Therapeutic Center. More recently Curiox has entered into a sales partnership agreement with Seoul-based BioBud covering the exclusive distribution of DropArray products in Korea, a growing biotechnology market.

Presently, seven laboratories worldwide are using the DropArray platform and the number is rising. Curiox has added three additional strategic distributors to its network. These distributors serve the US, South-East Asia and Japan.