Based on hyaluronic acid, a natural lubricant found in all body tissues, Biocoat’s HYDAK® hydrophilic coatings for medical devices are lubricious, abrasion resistant, non-thrombogenic, and biocompatible. Suitable for coating vascular catheters, guide wires and other medical devices, they can be applied to a wide range of polymeric and metallic substrates.

Biocoat, Inc. develops and licenses biomaterial coatings for medical devices that are custom engineered to meet client design parameters. Its specialty is supplying lubricious hydrophilic coatings for medical devices to OEM’s and contract manufacturers. Biocoat is also able in-house coating services to aspiring medical device companies that need help with their manufacturing.

Over 14 years ago, Biocoat began collaborating with Yale University School of Medicine, building on the school’s basic discovery of a simple binding test for determining sperm maturity. Based on this research, Biocoat developed the HBA Slide, a sperm building assay and the PICSI Dish, a sperm selection device used in Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI). Both of these products are based on the ability of mature sperm to bind to Hyaluronan (HA). The Reproductive Technology division of Biocoat was created to further develop and market these products. www.hba-picsi.com.

Biocoat was founded by Ellington Beavers. He grew up in Atlanta, GA and studied chemistry at Emory University, where he received a BS degree with honors and the MS degree. A Fellowship at the University of North Carolina led to his PhD in chemistry. Ellington worked for forty years with Rohm and Haas Company in Philadelphia and served numerous positions including Corporate Vice President, Senior Vice President and Group Vice President. He was a member of the Board of Directors and a member of the Executive and Operations Committees. Company by-laws required him to retire in 1981, and he joined the Board of Trustees of Beavers College which became Arcadia University. He was elected Chairman of the Board of Trustees and held the position for four years. He received permission to do research in laboratories in Boyer Hall, which led to eleven patents and a number of other patent applications. Through this work he founded Biocoat, which was incorporated in 1991.