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Arkansas Success Stories in the Making
Those five — Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health, Safe Foods, ContourMed, e-Doc America and Anabonix (now Radius) — employ a total of 171 scattered across the country and have an economic impact measured in the millions. InterveXion and BALM Innovations are considered "client" companies of the BioVentures program and they also responded to the questionnaire that was sent to all of the companies. ContourMed, Inc. CEO: Mimi San Pedro Date founded: 1998, June 2001 began commercially manufacturing Number of employees: Eight locally with six national sales reps for 14 total employees. Location: Little Rock What they do: ContourMed, Inc. is a medical technology manufacturer that produces external prosthetic breast products that are significantly more advanced, both technologically and aesthetically, than current products on the market. The company is the sole and exclusive beneficiary to the license(s) of intellectual property developed at the Arkansas Cancer Research Center at UAMS. The bright idea: In the early 1990s, L. Daniel Eaton, a board-certified ocularist with the Cancer Research Center, was creating lifelike facial prostheses for patients who could not benefit from reconstructive surgery. While most of his patients had experienced the horrors of facial cancer, one patient had been through more than most. In addition to suffering facial cancer trauma, she was also a breast cancer survivor. Eaton listened as his patient explained the trials of finding a breast prosthesis after her mastectomy. She told him about how heavy the available forms were, how hot, and how uncomfortable. Eaton fulfilled her request and spent the next decade researching, testing and most of all seeking input from breast cancer survivors. The result was a revolutionary breast prosthesis unlike any other on the market — one designed to meet the needs and desires of post-mastectomy patients. ContourMed began commercially manufacturing its custom-fitted, anatomically accurate breast prostheses in June 2001, and was also the first company to emerge from Arkansas BioVentures. With its first product offering, the ContourMed Classic™, ContourMed became the first and only company to use a patented 3-D laser scanning technology to create custom-fitted, anatomically accurate breast prosthesis. The bottom line: ContourMed currently partners with 255 retail locations in 41 states. There are approximately 2,100 women across the country wearing a ContourMed prosthesis. The company has been named a finalist of the Arkansas Business of the Year award; winner of the Arkansas Cancer Coalition Community Service Award (2004); and winner of the Governor's Community Service Award. In 2003, ContourMed was named one of the winners of the sixth annual Medical Design Excellence Awards (MDEA) competition, the only international awards program devoted exclusively to recognizing contributions and advancements in medical devices. On the Web: www.contourmed.com Radius Health, Inc., formerly Anabonix CEO: C. Richard Lyttle, PhD Date founded: November 2003 Number of employees: Nine full-time employees Location: Cambridge, Mass. What they do: Radius is a leading company in the discovery and development of a new generation of drug therapies for osteoporosis and women's health. The bright idea: The company's first drug in clinical trials is designed to build new bone in patients with osteoporosis, with the goal of reducing the risk of future fractures and improving the quality of life. The long-term focus is on additional areas in women's health that include contraception, reproductive disorders, symptoms of menopause and frailty associated with aging. Radius' scientific leadership includes some of the world's leading researchers in the fields of bone metabolism, endocrinology and medicinal chemistry, and the company has a broad foundation in nuclear hormone receptors. The bottom line: Significant progress is being made in developing and commercializing several breakthrough drugs in Radius' field. On the Web: www.radiuspharm.com InterveXion Therapeutics, LLC CEO: R. Barry Holtz, PhD Date founded: 2004 Number of employees: One Location: Little Rock What they do: InterveXion's mission is to be a leader in drug discovery and development focusing on passive monoclonal antibody therapies that work as pharmacokinetic antagonists to protect patients from disease. Their strategy is to continue to identify new targets for monoclonal antibody medications and nurture them through the approval processes necessary for market applications while outsourcing production aspects to capable collaborators. To begin, InterveXion will develop, produce and market monoclonal antibody therapies for treatment of substance abuse. Two products are currently in the pipeline, the first is for the treatment of phencyclidine (PCP) abuse, and the second is for the treatment of methamphetamine abuse. The bright idea: S. Michael Owens, PhD, and W. Brooks Gentry, MD, at UAMS have collaboratively been working toward solving the problems of drug abuse for over a decade. Because of their expertise in molecular biology and medication production techniques, Ralph L. Henry, PhD, and R. Barry Holtz, PhD, began working with Owens and Gentry over six years ago. Using molecules that look similar to PCP or meth, scientists under Owens' lab direction were able to make mice produce antibodies against the stimulant drugs. These antibodies have been tested in models, which showed they are effective for treating drug overdose and also for chronic abuse or addiction. It is believed that for a human in a drug overdose situation, these medicines will speed the removal of PCP or meth from the patient's brain where it causes long-term damage. For chronic abusers, these antibody medications should blunt or block the effects of drug use for three to four weeks after treatment. This will negate the reinforcing effects abusers feel each time they take the drug and will help them to quit their addiction more quickly. The bottom line: It is anticipated that InterveXion's first product, the treatment for PCP abuse, will reach the market sometime in 2009. While PCP addiction treatment medications do not comprise one of the largest drug markets in the United States, getting FDA approval for the PCP medication will show that its antibody treatments are effective in fighting drug abuse. This will speed the approval process for the meth medications. When the meth medication is approved, the company plans a marketing campaign across the portions of the country where meth is creating major problems with no specific therapies currently available. On the Web: www.intervexion.com BALM Innovations, LLC CEO: Lydia Carson Date founded: August 10, 2004 Number of employees: None full time. Bill Gurley serves as the chief science officer in a part time capacity. He is also the director of the Clinical Pharmacokinetics Research Laboratory at UAMS and a professor of pharmaceutical sciences in the UAMS College of Pharmacy. Location: Little Rock What they do: BALM Innovations is a provider of innovative, effective natural personal care products. The company's initial offering, Dr. Teatrie's Omnibalm™, is a highly effective, versatile topical cream developed more than 15 years ago by Gurley. The bright idea: Gurley's inspiration for Omnibalm came from his severe sunburn almost 20 years ago. The research led him to tea tree oil, which comes from Australia's melaleuca tree and has a long history as an effective treatment for many skin maladies. After several years of experimenting, Gurley was able to deliver a highly concentrated level of the oil in a non-greasy cream. He made batch after batch for a growing list of friends and colleagues who said the cream had became a staple of their medicine cabinets. These Omnibalm users reported that it is helpful when applied to burns, insect bites, dry skin, bedsores, rashes and numerous other skin irritations. BALM Innovations, LLC, was founded in August 2004 to commercialize Omnibalm. As a UAMS BioVentures startup company, BALM Innovations has an exclusive license to market the cream worldwide. The bottom line: Omnibalm's distribution has grown from 11 USA Drug stores in January 2006 to 29 USA Drug and Super D drugstores. Omnibalm is also available at the UAMS bookstore, on the Web site and by phone. On the Web: www.omnibalm.com MD Online, LLC dba eDocAmerica CEO: Chairman and founder is Dr. Charles W. Smith, Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs at UAMS Date founded: Sept. 15, 1999 Number of employees: 20 Location: Little Rock What they do: eDocAmerica is the nation's largest third-party provider of physician-consumer online communications. The bright idea: The brainchild of Smith, eDocAmerica is a Web site-based company that survived the dot-com crash and is now poised for more growth in the future. The bottom line: 2005 was a record year financially with the company showing revenues of more than $2 million and profits of more than $520,000. On the Web: www.edocamerica.com Safe Foods Corporation CEO: Curtis W. Coleman Date founded: 1999 Number of employees: 48 Location: North Little Rock, with the Research and Development Division located in Rogers. What they do: The company develops, acquires and commercializes food safety technologies used by food processors in the United States and in multiple international markets. The bright idea: Cecure® antimicrobial was developed from discoveries made by researchers at UAMS and the University of Arkansas. The FreshLight® advanced ultraviolet light disinfection technology was developed by the research and development division of Safe Foods Corporation and was initially founded to acquire an exclusive license for the University of Arkansas' patent rights and to commercialize a cetylpyridinium chloride food safety technology discovered by researchers at UAMS and the University of Arkansas. The bottom line: Safe Foods reports that the business is "rapidly expanding." On the Web: www.safefoods.net CTEH (Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health), LLC CEOs: Jay Gandy, Phillip Goad, Glenn Millner and Alan Nye, PhDs Date founded: March 1997 Number of employees: Approximately 80 people in four offices. Location: Little Rock, with regional offices in Franklin, Tenn.; Omaha, Neb.; and Kemah, Texas. What they do: CTEH is a science-based company established to provide toxicology and environmental health consulting services. CTEH has grown from nine to approximately 80 full-time staff members in nine years. CTEH employs PhD toxicologists, industrial hygienists, risk assessors, chemical engineers, professional engineers and various other environmental scientists at the bachelor's and master's level. Each person brings different experiences and core competencies, which make CTEH a stronger and more diversified company. CTEH has a broad range of professional consulting services including toxicology, emergency response, litigation support, risk assessment, industrial hygiene, occupational health, environmental laboratory services, pharmacology, hazardous materials training, environmental remediation, hazardous waste management and information technology. CTEH is one of the few companies in the United States that is able to provide clients with all of these different, yet intertwined professional services in one place. The bright idea: The founding partners worked with each other professionally for nearly 10 years before starting CTEH. In fact, three of the four partners earned their PhDs at UAMS. CTEH began by offering clients fundamental toxicology, occupational health and risk assessment consulting services and has grown to include the expanded professional services that are offered today. The bottom line: The business has grown and expanded substantially since the founding in 1997, with an approximate 57 percent growth each year for the last eight years. A new building is currently under construction in the North Shore business park development in North Little Rock that will accommodate approximately 100 people, and CTEH expects to be in the new building by the end of the year. On the Web: www.cteh.com Tags:NoneBookmark:
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