Revolymer - non-stick chewing gum (well almost)

Revolymer is an interesting company with an interesting new product under development. Based at Mostyn in North Wales and founded in 2005 to develop polymer technology developed and licensed from the University of Bristol to make an environmentally friendly chewing gum.

Sticky streetside deposits are unsightly and all current methods of removal , freezing, steam cleaning, scraping enzymatic destruction are not only expensive (Westminster Council say they spend nearly £100K per annum) but can cause damage to the sidewalk surfaces or result in toxic wastes.

The Revolymer website has a handy video by chemist Tim Cosgrove , "Why things stick " which provides a quick'n' easy history of their design philosophy.This doesn't involve changing the basic chewing gum - which is basically a synthetic rubber (isoprene) with flavouring and sweeteners added. It is not unusual to find up to 100 different chemical constituents in chewing gum.

Their approach is to use a further additive (naturally they are rather coy about it's exact formulation) which is aplymer that is both lipophilic and hydrophilic which results in the expelled product being far less sticky (not non - stick) and more easily removed with either water or simple surfactants.

Using the same technology they are also investigating ways of drug delivery using gums for such drugs as anti-migraine drugs, anti-emetics and analgesics (such as ibuprofen, aspirin, naproxen ) using simple buccal absorption (direct through the mouth mucosae) rather than the lengthier and delayed gastruic absorption route.

Major investors are IP Group Plc, an intellectual property (IP) commercialisation company that specialises in commercialising university technology. Founded in 2001, IP Group listed on AiM in October 2003 and moved to the Official List in June 2006. With their help Revolymer have just announced the successful completion of a £10 million financing round.

Previous posts on chewing gum here see also Saturday, June 03, 2006 Cadbury Scweppes increases world share of chewing gum market. and for a history of how everyone wants to prosecute users On the Spit Fines and the history of the nasty fucking stuff Sticky deposits . Spit or swallow?

They also make bubble gum ...


..but prolly not in North Wales