A TECHNOLOGY firm aims to help foil terror plots after securing a £1.5m deal.

Kromek has a five-year contract to provide x-ray apparatus for baggage security screening systems.

The agreement comes just days after The Northern Echo reported Kromek had picked up another five-year arrangement, worth at least £4m, to support healthcare work on osteoporosis.

It also represents another significant coup for the business, based at NetPark, in Sedgefield, County Durham, which earlier this year secured a £2.5m deal to supply parts for security systems designed to detect homemade bombs.

The firm, which began as a research-focused spin out from Durham University’s physics department in the early 2000s, has additionally supplied airport bottle scanners to scour luggage for explosives and sent thousands of radiation detectors to an agency of the US Department of Defense to help identify extremist acts, such as ‘dirty bombs’.

Dr Arnab Basu, chief executive, said the latest agreement, revealed yesterday, was a huge fillip for the company, which saw its technology used to protect US President Donald Trump and other world leaders during a recent Nato Security Summit in Belgium.

He said: “We are delighted to secure another long-term contract; this further demonstrates the demand for our products and technology as all firms in this arena begin upgrading their legacy systems to bring them in line to detect modern day threats.

“We look forward to working with this new customer and developing a long-term relationship with them.”

Speaking to the Echo earlier this year, Dr Basu said the business was targeting a $100m-a-year healthcare sub-sector with a new camera aimed at helping treat cancer, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

He added the firm hopes to break even next year as the “transformational” product takes hold.

Speaking to the Echo in June, Dr Basu revealed he expects its new camera to be introduced in China soon, with expansion into Europe and the US following thereafter, adding the equipment will give Kromek an added edge in the single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) sector.

He said that by supplying competitors of existing market mainstay GE Healthcare, Kromek will move closer to a previously-announced ambition of seeing earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation and sharebased payments (EBITDA) break even by next year.

He also said the interest, allied to rising clamour for products across other industries, should help take year-on-year revenue growth to around 40 per cent, giving a stronger platform to record its first profit in the coming years.

He added: “This camera is transformational for the SPECT market. We have taken the technology from a black and white TV to an ultra-high-definition TV.”