Altair Nanotechnologies has been anointed by Josh Wolfe, of the Forbes/Wolfe Nanotech Report, as a "pretender no more." Wolfe says that Altair "seems to be making progress in getting real nanomaterials-based products to market, with its NanoSafe batteries in particular," and that its stock jumped 18 percent recently thanks to President Bush checking out the Phoenix SUT (Altair owns 16 percent of Phoenix). Altair's new battery technologies are helping it make "some impressive partnerships and supplying agreements of late," Wolfe writes, "including deals with aluminum giant Alcoa and Pacific Gas & Electric, both of which are buying Phoenix's vehicles for use as delivery vans. Altair also partnered with pharmaceutical major Eli Lilly, which is licensing Altair's phosphate build-up prevention drug, branded Renalan, for its animal health care division."

These deals, along with Altair's American and international patents, mean that Wolfe is happy to remove the "Nano Pretender" label he assigned in May 2002, but he's not buying any stock quite yet. The full article is worth reading.

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[Source: Forbes]