OJ-Bio was established in the UK in December 2008 as a joint venture between JRC and ORLA. The aim of OJ-Bio was to develop a unique technology by combining JRC's SAW technology with ORLA's protein technology to provide a POCT immunoassay product that could be used at home. OJ-Bio has received several UK grant projects on influenza, HIV, periodontal disease, etc., and has conducted basic research on SAW biosensors with JRC.
Since the basic technology developments at OJ-Bio had been completed and the aim of OJ-Bio had been fulfilled, OJ-Bio was dissolved in 2017. All assets of OJ-Bio were transferred to JRC, and JRC continued to try commercialization in Japan.
In 2019, JRC/UJRC obtained a PMDA product certificate of a CRP test kit in Japan, the first in vitro diagnostic product using SAW biosensors. Since the reader is palm-sized and can be carried in a bag for visiting doctors, JRC/UJRC have received some inquiries from visiting doctors, nursing care centers, and clinics in rural areas. However, as it was a new market, the market scale was small and insufficient to start commercialization.
In 2020, JRC decided to shrink the development project in Japan and continue to support for tstbio commercialization in Taiwan. JRC transferred the SAW biosensor technologies to tstbio. The palm-sized reader was taken over by tstbio, and all the protein-coating equipment was transferred to tstbio's plant in Taiwan. In addition, all of assets of OJ-Bio including Logo/Home page has also been transferred to tstbio from JRC.
tstbio is working on commercialization of SAW biosensor products and JRC is still supporting tstbio.
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OJ-Bio: OJ-Bio Limited
ORLA: Orla Protein Technologies Ltd.
JRC: Japan Radio Co.,Ltd.
UJRC: Ueda Japan Radio Co.,Ltd.
TST: Tai-Saw technology Co., Ltd.
tstbio: tst biomedical electronics Co., Ltd.
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