KALAMAZOO ? The August Kalamazoo Venture Tuesday will include a two-year-in-review special session featuring companies currently incubating at the Southwest Michigan Innovation Center and a panel discussion examining the success of the Stick Around campaign.
Earlier this month, Dow Venture Wire called Kalamazoo?s, ?one of the more impressive efforts? at building a biotech cluster. The August KVT panel discussion address the elements of that effort, including support that was provided, lessons learned by the founders of some of the more than two dozen companies launched, and advice for budding entrepreneurs.
Stick Around was a community-wide effort to launch start-up companies and retain scientific talent that would be transferred or eliminated with the announcement by Pfizer Inc., in 2003 that it would be moving the bulk of its research and development efforts from the Kalamazoo area. Speaking to PharmaVoice magazine for their annual Biotech edition, Southwest Michigan First Board Chair William D. Johnston, president and CEO of Greenleaf Companies, described our local initiative:
?When Kalamazoo began developing a biotech cluster a few years ago, we were at the forefront of small communities. Today, nearly every state in the country is looking to develop a biotech cluster. .. Success for the Greater Kalamazoo Region and Southwest Michigan in general stems from our 125-year history in the pharmaceutical industry. We are also one of only a handful of communities world-wide that can take a new drug from concept to commercialization. So our ?cluster? was really a redeployment of existing assets and resources, supported by a community-wide effort that stretched to the Governor?s office. In just the past two years, Kalamazoo has helped launch more than two-dozen biotech companies. Of these, 16 are located at the Southwest Michigan Innovation Center. A $14 million, 58,000 square-foot wet lab incubator accelerator that was built using just $4 million in public funding ? half from the state and half from the community. It required a single vision for success and unilateral support from the community.?
Representatives three of these start-ups will discuss their business model at the August KVT event. They are:
Robert Forgey is Chief Science Officer of ProNAi, Inc., a pre-clinical development-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on bringing new Nucleic Acid inhibitor (NAi) drugs to market. The company is actively involved in preclinical development of a number of anti-cancer drugs. Having already made significant progress in its lead discovery efforts, ProNAi is creating a unique and broad intellectual property platform that supports the development of numerous Nucleic acid products using DNA based gene ?scilencing.?
James McKim, Ph.D., is the CEO of CeeTox, a contract research organization focused on in vitro toxicity screening of potential drug candidates. The company was founded in July of 2003, the first start-up launched from the Stick Around Campaign. In May, CeeTox also became the first start-up to be sold — it was successfully acquired by North American Science Associates, Inc. (NAMSA) Under the terms of the purchase agreement, The Northwood, Ohio-based company purchased 51% of the outstanding shares and will acquire the remaining shares as certain undisclosed milestones are met. CeeTox provides predictive evaluations of the toxicological properties of chemical and biological substances. NAMSA offers a broad range of safety testing and regulatory compliance services for the medical device and pharmaceutical industries. CeeTox will remain in Kalamazoo.
Dean Shinabarger, Ph.D., is CEO of Micromyx (pronounced my-CRO-mix), a contract research organization pursuing the discovery and development of antibacterial agents. While at Pharmacia, Shinabarger and co-founder Gary Zurenko, Ph.D., were part of the lead scientific team behind the development of such notable antibiotics as Zyvox ? the first new class of antibiotic developed in more than 30 years. The international reputation of these men and their Micromyx team of scientists have established an immediate credibility for the young start-up. Incorporated in June of 2004, Micromyx has already secured research contracts from some of the world?s leading pharmaceutical companies engaged in antibacterial discovery.
In addition to presentations by these local companies, entrepreneurs from two additional life sciences companies will pitch their business model. They are:
Phytotech – specializes in the analysis of freshwater and marine samples for algae, zooplankton, and bacteria. PhycoTech has been providing high quality aquatic sample analysis for over 15 years, contracting with a myriad of private consultants, as well as local, state and federal agencies. We lead the industry by providing customers with a wide variety of associated services such as specialized bioassays, photo documentation, data analysis, report generation, and field study design. PhycoTech is the only commercial lab in North America to utilize a unique proprietary permanent mounting technique that reduces sample processing time from days to hours, a significant advantage over our competitors. PhycoTech has also recently completed development of an innovative Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS), ASA, that includes highly specialized calculations, and provides relational databases currently cross-referencing over 20,000 thousand samples with over 38,000 aquatic species.
Valpo Orthopedic Technology – (VOT) is a medical device company located in Valparaiso, Indiana and is focused on the design and development of novel surgical devices used to improve bones, muscles, and joints (orthopedics). Founder and current CEO, Ron Clark, M.D., has been practicing orthopedic surgery since completing training in 1991. He filed for his first medical patented device and method in 1992 and is responsible for the world wide adoption of transverse femoral ligament fixation used in knee ligament surgery. He has been granted 9 US patents related to surgical devices and has 11 patents pending.
In September, Kalamazoo Venture Tuesday will feature MichBio?s SPROUTS program. The event will be hosted by Jan Garfinkle, managing director and founding partner of Arboretum Ventures. Note that the date of the meeting has been moved to accommodate the Arboretum schedule. That KVT will be held the second Tuesday, September 13.
