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Spire Biomedical Awarded Grant for Dental Arch Wire Coatings

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^{Published in Science and Technology on Tuesday, September 27th 2011 at 7:44 GMT by Market Wire}  

BEDFORD, Mass.--([ BUSINESS WIRE ])--[ Spire Biomedical ], a wholly-owned subsidiary of [ SpireCorporation ] (Nasdaq: SPIR), announced today that the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), has awarded Spire a nine-month Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I Grant for $114,173, to develop coatings for dental arch wires used in orthodontics. The purpose of the coatings is to reduce sliding resistance between the arch wire and bracket, lowering the force required to straighten teeth, reducing treatment times, and resulting in more predictable outcomes for the orthodontist.

"Spire Biomedical provides surface treatment and coating services to the medical device industry"

aSpire Biomedical provides surface treatment and coating services to the medical device industry,a said Mark C. Little, CEO of Spire Biomedical. aWe currently process hundreds of thousands of dental arch wires every year with our IonGuard^® process. This grant will help us to develop next-generation ceramic oxide coatings that promise even greater performance. The coatings will effectively decouple sliding resistance from other mechanical properties of the arch wire, providing the practitioner with new tools for solving specific patient problems. The program is targeting improved performance in nickel-titanium and titanium-molybdenum alloy wires, but the coatings should be applicable to other types of wires as well.a

About Spire Corporation

Spire Biomedical, a wholly owned subsidiary of [ Spire Corporation ], a global solar company, provides surface treatment services for implantable medical devices. To learn more about Spire Biomedical, visit [ www.SpireBiomedical.com ]. To learn more about Spire Corporation, visit [ www.SpireCorp.com ] or email [ PR@SpireCorp.com ].

Certain matters described in this press release may be forward-looking statements subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the risk of dependence on market growth, competition and dependence on government agencies and other third parties for funding contract research and services, as well as other factors described in the Company's Form10-K and other periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.