Tech 25

November 14th, 2004

Welcome to the first ever Tech 25ï¿½our annual look at some of the brightest emerging stars of the North Carolina technology community. In creating the Tech 25, we attempted to find the regionï¿½s most promising early stage companies…firms that are less than 5 years old and have raised less than $10 million in funding.
To put this list together we enlisted the help of several North Carolina technology community ï¿½insidersï¿½ to get their take. We couldnï¿½t include every high potential company out there…and there were plenty to choose fromï¿½.a good sign for the forseeable future of the Triangle technology community. What helps get a company on the listï¿½a solid proprietary technology, strong leadership and large market potential for starters.

Letï¿½s get startedï¿½

BrightView
Technologies

Brief: New flat screen technologies

Based on technology licensed from Duke University, Brightview Technologies is working on a more advanced rear projection screen technology. The new screen technology aims to improve picture contrast dramatically and solve a problem causing image jitter on current rear projection screens. The screens will eventually be manufactured for the large 40 to 70-inch diagonal TV rear projection TV sets. The company says due to the small number of players making rear projection screens, profit margins are extremely high.
Market Potential: According to industry figures, about 4 million rear projection screens sell annually to manufacturers from $100 to $125 in a half billion dollar market growing 20 and 30 percent a year through 2006-7.
Leadership: Bob Freese, CEO. Freese has a Ph.D. in optical engineering and worked with the 3M group that made key breakthroughs in read/write CDs in the early 1980s. “I took that program from a couple of people and grew it into what you would classically call a division, up through manufacturing,” he says. Freese left 3M and came to the Research Triangle in 1987 where he started Alphatronix, which sold in 1997 to Auspex. It made massive storage devices for computers and evolved into one of the first data management companies.
Investment: Raised less than $2 million. The company does not anticipate having to raise any additional venture funding, but may raise strategic investment. Investment came from a consortium of angel groups.
Founded: 2001
Website: www.brightviewtechnologies.com

Inlet Technologies

Brief: Compression technologies for High Definition content

Inlet Technologies provides encoding solutions for high-definition content creation and distribution. High-Definition (HD) broadcasting is a superior way to watch broadcasts but the large file sizes make it challenging to use high-definition content in the workflow process of broadcasters without facing expensive upgrades and new process developments. Inletï¿½s technology allows for more widespread creation and distribution of HD content.
Market Potential: In 2004, 11 million households in the United States own an HD television set. 70 percent of broadcasters in the major markets offer HD programming. Estimated that by 2006 over 30 million US consumers will own HD television sets.
Leadership: Neal Page, President and CEO. Page previously founded Osprey Technologies in 1994 (now a division of ViewCast Corporation). Previously, he held management positions at Sun Microsystems where Page led an elite Advanced Products Group to deliver advanced media technology to market. Prior to that, he held senior engineering positions at Sun Microsystems, General Electric and Data General. Page holds BS and MS degrees in electrical and computer engineering from North Carolina State University. He presently serves on the board of directors of Hauppauge Digital (NASDAQ: HAUP).
Investment: The company is currently raising funding.
Founded: 2003
Website: www.inlethd.com

Oriel Therapeutics

Brief: Advanced inhaler technology

Oriel Therapeutics aims to create a better inhaler device based on technology developed at the University of North Carolina. The inhaler is designed based on the characteristics of powder flow, powder separation and pulmonary drug delivery characteristics in an attempt to create a more efficient and consistent method to get inhaled drugs to a patient. The company is currently working on drug deliveries that treat asthma, cystic fibrosis and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.
Leadership: Paul J. Atkins, PhD, Chief Executive Officer. Atkins joined Oriel from GlaxoSmithKline where he was involved with the development and commercialization of inhaled delivery systems, most recently as Director, Delivery Systems in the Global Respiratory Therapeutic Development group. Atkins is also a founder of Oriel Therapeutics.
Market Potential: The market for dry powder inhalers in the U.S. is expected to grow from less than $700 million in 2000 to $7 billion by the end of the decade. More than 25 million Americans are currently estimated to have asthma, with the prevalence of asthma doubling globally in the last 15 years. Direct healthcare costs for asthma in the United States total more than $9.8 billion annually. Almost two-thirds of 6,600 asthma patients studied underused their inhaled medication for the long-term treatment of asthma.
Investment: The company has raised over $1 million in seed money.
Founded: 2001
Website: www.orieltherapeutics.com

Affinergy

Brief: Medical device coatings

Affinergy develops medical device coatings that help prevent infections and promote specific cell growth. The company partners with medical device companies to help improve their existing products or create new ones. The company hopes its tools can contribute to the lowering of healthcare costs and improving of patient outcomes.
Market Potential: Over 500,000 cases of hospital-acquired infections are reported each year. 90% of nosocomial urinary tract infections are associated with urinary catheter usage that cost the healthcare system $1.8 billion annually. Over 250,000 infection cases are reported each year for central venous catheters in the U.S. 12-25% of those people die; that is 30,000 to 62,500 deaths each year. The incremental healthcare cost for each case is $25,000 for a total of $6.25 billion.
Leadership: Peyton Anderson, CEO. Peyton is a successful entrepreneur who co-founded SciQuest, Inc. in 1995 and was the startup CEO through 1997 and Board Member until after the company went public. From 1998 to 2003, Peyton served as the VP of Business Development for SciQuest and was responsible for raising capital, making strategic partner deals, mergers & acquisitions and recruiting the management team. SciQuest raised over $175 million including its IPO in 1999 and completed 8 acquisitions.
Investment: The company closed on $2 million Series A in August of this year. Investors included MCNC, Trinity Healthcare, Charleston Angel Partners and the Wilmington Investor Network.
Founded: 2002
Website: www.affinergy.com

Gentris

Brief: Uses genetic profiling to predict drug response.

Gentris Corporation is engaged in the development of clinical pharmacogenomics products. Pharmacogenomics is the study of an individualï¿½s genetic profile (obtained through genetic tests or genotyping) to predict response to specific drugs. This information helps reduce the time and cost of drug development significantly and helps physicians make better and safer treatment decisions for their patients. Gentris believes that the application of pharmacogenomics knowledge to drug development will improve trial design and predictability, shorten the drug development cycle, improve new drug approval rates and market positioning, and enable companies to retest drug candidates that fail to meet clinical trial or FDA approval standards.
Market: Pharmacogenomic testing (research, clinical, and diagnostic) is projected to grow from $1.5 billion in 2000 to $3-$4 billion by 2005. Gentris products seek to predict drug efficacy and decrease adverse drug reactions, which is the fourth leading cause of death and the fifth leading cause of illness in the United States.
Leadership: Michael Murphy, President and CEO. Murphy is recognized as one of the pioneers of the pharmacogenomics industry and was the founder of Intek Labs, the first international pharmacogenomics company. Murphy has also held senior management positions with PPGx and Clingenix.
Investment: Raised over $2 million.
Founded: 2001
Website: www.gentris.com

Metabolon

Brief: Uses molecule analysis to help improve drug development process.

Metabolon’s technology analyzes small molecules in cells (metabolomics), helping to identify and understand a disease state faster and more accurately than previously possible. The company hopes to entrench this technology in the drug development and testing processes. The technology helps to identify safer compounds for development, shorten the time for drugs to get to market and identify diagnostic markers for earlier disease detection.
Market: New drugs cost an estimated $800 million or more to bring to market after about 15 years from conception to sales. With the direct cost to bring a single successful drug to the market on the order of $250 to $350 million, the major portion of the $800 million represents the cost of failed drugs.
Leadership: John Ryals, Ph. D., President and Chief Executive Officer. Prior to joining Metabolon, Ryals was CEO, President and Founder of Paradigm Genetics. At Paradigm, he raised over $100 million in equity financing, including an Initial Public Offering in 2000 and a follow on offering in 2001 and closed on R&D partnerships valued at over $200 million. Ryals has also served in senior research positions at Novartis and Ciba-Geigy and currently serves on the Boards of Athenix Corporation and North Carolina State University College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences. Ryals received a Ph. D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Texas at Dallas.
Investment: Metabolon closed a $9 million Series A round in October 2004. Investors included the Aurora Funds, Sevin Rosen Funds and Trelys Funds.
Founded: 2000
Website: www.metabolon.com

Integrian

Brief: Mobile digital video technology for law-enforcement agencies.

Integrian develops and manufactures mobile digital video solutions for the public safety, transportation and corporate security markets. Customers use Integrian’s technology to capture high-quality digital video as well as to tag, transmit, archive and search that video for various security and law enforcement purposes. The company’s in-car system, which runs $5,000 to $7,000 per vehicle, consists of a digital video recorder, or DVR, a car docking station, a small screen and a small camera. Some of Integrian’s customers may add a high-powered laptop computer or extra cameras to the setup. In addition to recording video, the company’s technology also captures audio and data such as the squad car’s speed and other cars’ speeds. Outside the police car, the system records conversation between the officer, who wears a cordless microphone, and the “perpetrator,” as well as anything the officer says in the squad car. Officers can attach incident reports or tickets to the video file.
Market: There are estimated to be over 410,000 police cruisers in service today, with around 70,000 new ones in service each year. The company’s marketing research found that while about 20 percent of the nation’s squad cars had video cameras in their cabs and VCRs in their trunks, other law enforcement agencies found it too difficult to manage the hundreds of videotapes produced in an analog system.
Leadership: Peter Durand, Chief Executive Officer. Durand was most recently President and Chief Operating Officer for three years at Entivity, an automation company. He held the role of Director of E-Business for GE Fanuc, a joint venture business between General Electric and Fanuc of Japan. While there he was a part of the executive staff of this $600 million business; recruiting the e-business team, revamping the entire web infrastructure, coordinating e-business strategies with other GE business leaders. He holds an M.B.A from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville.
Founded: 1999
Website: www.integrian.com

Chorus Systems

Brief: Network Systems Management Software

Chorus Systems provides software solutions that automatically detect, diagnose and resolve PC and server-related problems throughout a companyï¿½s network using an ï¿½Autonomicï¿½ computing system. An autonomic computing system controls the functioning of computer applications and systems without input from the user. The goal of autonomic computing is to create systems that are self-managing, self-healing, and self-protecting.
Leadership: Sirus Chitsaz, CEO. Chitsaz previously has experience in development and marketing for organizations including ITT, Nortel, Alcatel, Rendall and Associates, and Gartner Group. He has served on the faculty at NC State University and was the Director of the Center for Communications & Signal Processing. During the 1990s, as a partner in Rendall and Associates, he helped build wireless and broadband access companies in the US and abroad. During the last several years he has incubated and led several start-up companies.
Investment: The company has raised a $1.6 million Series A round. Investors include MCNC Ventures, Tri-State Investment Group IV, and individual angel investors.
Founded: 2002
Website: www.chorussystems.com

Polyglot Systems

Brief: Real time language translation technology

Polyglot Systems is developing a multilingual translation technology designed to help the medical community treat non-English speaking patients. According to the company, one of the most pressing needs for interpreter services is in hospital emergency departments (ED), where patients must be treated quickly. Polyglotï¿½s flagship product, ProLingua ED, was released in January 2004 and has demonstrated an advantage over other human-based translation solutions that are costly and can cause delays. ProLingua ED is a multi-language interpretation service using a touch-screen system for ï¿½bi-directional communication.ï¿½ Initially deployed in Spanish, ProLingua ED has over 6,700 phrases for emergency department communication. ProLingua ED, which will ultimately serve over 20 languages, is cart-based and requires no IT integration. No other bi-directional interpretation technologies exist in the market at this time, according to Polyglot. Although the company is initially focused on the healthcare market, Polyglot sees other promising areas where its translation products could have commercial potential, including such markets as security, immigration, banking, and law enforcement.
Market: The 2000 census reported a 40 percent increase in the immigrant population over the last 10 years, tallying 20 million people who speak poor English and 10 million who speak none.
Leadership: Charles Lee, MD. President & Founder. Prior to Polyglot, Lee was involved in several businesses involving medical education and information technology. Lee is board certified in internal medicine and was a National Library of Medicine Fellow at the Duke/UNC medical informatics program. Lee received his MD from Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine and his BS from Kent State University.
Investment: Raised seed round, seeking additional investment.
Founded: 2001
Website: www.polyglot.com

Tap Root Systems

Brief: Embedded software for smartphones

TapRoot Systems is a provider of embedded software which provides the communications infrastructure for smartphones. This functionality allows wireless mobile handset manufacturers and semiconductor vendors to move their products to market more quickly. Major customers are wireless mobile handset manufacturers and semiconductor vendors.
Market: 45 million smart phones expected to ship in 2007.
Leadership: Hugh Thomas, CEO. Thomasï¿½ background includes VP of Marketing at Vitesse Semiconductor, VP of Marketing and Applications at Orologic and Director of the Networking Business Unit at ST Microelectronics.

Investment: Raised $7 million Series A round in April 2004. Intersouth and Mid-Atlantic Venture Funds led the investment.
Founded: 2000
Website: www.taprootsystems.com

Adigy

Brief: RFID technology to monitor patients.

Adigy is implementing developments in radio-frequency identification (RFID) and new biosensors technology to improve the real-time monitoring of medical patients. Most healthcare facilities monitor patients using cumbersome cables. Beyond this common ï¿½cabledï¿½ approach, a small fraction of hospitals use technology called medical telemetry that removes patient cables by requiring the patient to wear a costly and bulky transmitting ï¿½boxï¿½ on their side. Adigy seeks to improve these traditional patient monitoring methods with small, RFID-enabled products that would eliminate wire entanglement and allow for easier movement in the hospital room. Adigyï¿½s products boast advantages in size, power, range and cost, and would also work seamlessly with existing equipment.
Market: Estimated 98 percent of healthcare facilities monitor patients with electrocardiograms or pulse-oximetry systems that require 10-foot connection cables.
Leadership: Richard West, CEO. West was formerly the CEO and founder of Durham-based TriVirix, a medical device manufacturer that West grew from start-up to over $70 million in revenue. Dr. William New, Adigyï¿½s Chairman and Chief Marketing Officer, is an inventor, physician and founder of two now-public medical device companies ï¿½ Nellcor and Natus Medical. Dr. Bozena Kaminska, Adigyï¿½s Chief Technology Officer, is an industry-wide expert on RFID technology and has also founded multiple successful companies.
Investment: The company is currently raising its first round.
Founded: 2004
Website: No website currently.

Centice

Brief: Smart sensor technology

Centice develops and manufactures custom and semi-custom sensor-based products for companies that make analytical instruments, biomedical devices, imaging products and security technology. Computational sensors boost the performance of a wide range of products that use optical sensors. Centice sensors offer up to 1000 times greater light throughput as compared to conventional sensors. The company hopes the availability of this technology will both revolutionize the performance of existing products and drive the creation of new analytical instruments. The technology was originally developed at Duke University.
Market: The total market for sensor-based products is approximately $8 billion, many of which have the potential to benefit from Centice technology, according to the company.
Leadership: Steve Kaye, CEO. Prior to Centice, Kaye served as president of privately-held GTCO CalComp, a provider of large format position-sensing systems, including high performance digitizers and digital whiteboards. Kaye has also served as vice president of corporate development for CIENA Corporation, where he was responsible for acquisitions, strategic investments and partnerships.
Investment: Closed a Series A round in October of this year for $3 million. Investors included the Aurora Funds and Novak Biddle Venture Partners.
Founded: 2003
Website: www.centice.com

Refense Technologies

Brief: Network device and wireless security

Refense Tech-nologies is a provider of security policy management and security assessment solutions for network devices. The company develops solutions that address security concerns within network devices. Itï¿½s Device Scanner product detects vulnerabilities internal to network devices such as routers, switches and wireless access points. The company also has an enterprise, automated, software-based solution that will help detect unauthorized, rogue wireless access points by leveraging the intelligence of the existing wired and wireless networks.
Market: 50% of Fortune 1000 companies are expected to have wireless networks in 2005.
Leadership: Fabian Oliva, Angel Jones and Robert Hernandez co-founded the company. Hernandez, the vice president of sales, has worked for the MCI and Cable & Wireless. Jones, the chief technology officer, was previously at Veritas.
Investment: Currently seeking venture capital.
Founded: 2003
Website: www.refense.com

Xintek

Brief: Nanotubes

Nanotech firm Xintek was initially established to develop and commercialize applications of carbon nanotubes in various industries such as telecommunications, electronics and medical imaging systems. The Company obtained the exclusive license of proprietary technologies developed by co-founder Dr. Otto Zhou and his collaborators from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Market: The total global demand for nanoscale materials, tools, and devices was estimated at $7.6 billion in 2003 and is expected to reach $28.7 billion in 2008.
Leadership: Shan Bai, Ph.D., CEO. Bai, has 5 years investment banking experience with JP Morgan, Union Bank of Switzerland and was previously in-house legal counsel for Leica AG, Switzerland Ph.D. Co-founder Dr. Otto Zhouï¿½s research at UNC-CH has been supported by the federal agencies including the Department of Defense, NASA and the National Science Foundation. Dr. Zhou is the director of the North Carolina Center for Nanoscale Materials with participants from UNC, Duke and NCSU.
Founded: 2000
Investment: The company has raised over $3.5 million in investment.
Website: www.xintek.com

Qualyst

Brief: Products to aid drug development

Qualyst was founded on discoveries from research by three professors in the School of Pharmacy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Some of the major challenges in drug development today center around absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion (ADMET) processes at the cellular and molecular level. ADMET challenges have been and continue to be a major cause of compound attrition during the drug development process, resulting in the loss of millions in investment dollars and valuable research time. Qualyst focuses on commercializing novel and proprietary ADMET products to drug discovery and development customers.
Market: Over $20 billion are spent on drug discovery process. One market estimate shows that for every 100,000 compounds screened, about 100 hits are identified. Of these 100 hits, only one makes it to the lead compound stage. Between 40% and 60% of these lead compounds fail ADMET testing.
Leadership: Scott Neuville, President and CEO. Neuville is the former Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of iBiomatics, a SAS company. Neuville spent seven years at STERIS Corporation (STE) in several senior executive roles including President of the Americas Healthcare Division.
Investment: Qualyst closed a Series A round of investment in February 2004.
Founded: 2002
Website: www.qualyst.com

Strikeiron

Brief: Web Services software facilitator

StrikeIron creates products and services that allow business users and developers to more readily use the emerging set of Web services technologies. ï¿½Web servicesï¿½ are a new technology that allows businesses to integrate their internal computer systems, leverage legacy systems, and automate communication with their business partners. The company describes Web Services as ï¿½software talking to software over the Internet.ï¿½
Market: IDC Research puts the Web services market at $21B by 2007 of which $6B will be software-related.
Leadership: Richard Holcomb, CEO. Holcomb is a serial entrepreneur in the Research Triangle Park area and prior to founding StrikeIron in 2002 he served as the Interim CEO of GadgetSpace, a wireless technology company, and oversaw its acquisition by Inphonic in 2001. He was a founder of HAHT Commerce in 1995, a e-commerce application provider, and served as HAHT’s first CEO and Chairman. Prior to HAHT, he was a founder of Q+E Software in 1986, a supplier of client-server database access technology, and served as that company’s CEO, president, and chairman from inception to its acquisition by Intersolv in 1994.
Investment: Closed $2.4 million Series A round in August of 2004 from the Aurora Funds.
Founded: 2003
Website: www.strikeiron.com

Hemocellular

Brief: Blood platelet technology

Hemocellular hopes that its new technology will revolutionize platelet infusions and help stop bleeding patients. With Hemocellular’s technology, blood platelets can be freeze-dried for up to five years in a freezer and reconstituted in a few seconds by adding sterile saline. That would relieve some pressure from the nation’s blood reserve and be a boon in the event of a natural disaster or bioterrorist attack involving large populations. The blood cells are only engineered to stick to bleeding sites where clotting is needed and not to one another, preventing unwanted clotting such as a stroke. Sterility, immediate efficacy and ease of storage and transport make Hemocellular’s platelets attractive to the military, which is interested in using it to treat wounded soldiers on the field according to the company.
Market: The U.S market for platelet transfusions is expected to be around $2 billion by 2007, with the global market twice that.
Leadership: Dr. Dana M. Fowlkes, MD, PhD – Acting CEO/CMO. Fowlkes is a General Partner with BioVista Capital; a Director of Karo Bio AB in Stockholm, Sweden; and an Adjunct Associate Professor of Pathology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has previously served as Merlin Pharmaceutical and founded Durham-based Novalon Pharmaceutical which he subsequently sold to Karo Bio AB in 2000.
Investment: The company closed on a $1 million seed round early in 2004 led by Catalysta Ventures.
Website: www.hemocellular.com

Kyma Technologies

Brief: Wafer technologies

Kyma Technol-ogies, a company formed out of N.C. State, is developing nitride substrates (a.k.a. wafers) to be used as core materials in a wide range of semiconductor devices. Devices based on gallium nitride will mean brighter lights, longer device life, reduced power consumption, and higher quality products for the consumer in the future. The company’s substrates will also be used in short wavelength semiconductor lasers for high-density optical storage, high brightness UV LEDs for solid state lighting, advanced high frequency communication components for wireless applications, and high-power semiconductor devices for wireless infrastructure and radar applications.
Market: Kyma will be the first company to develop the enabling technology that fabricates GaN substrates for new UV (ultra-violet) devices, such as blue laser diodes. GaN-based device sales are projected to be $2 billion in 2003, growing to $5 billion in 2007.
Leadership: Edward R. Pupa, President and CEO – Prior to joining Kyma, Pupa has held senior positions ranging from Director of Business Development to Vice President Worldwide Sales for several software and electronic design automation companies, including Cadence Design Systems, Integrated Silicon Systems, Inc. and Avant!
Investment: The company closed on a $1.3 million Series A round and a $4 million Series B round led by Digital Power Capital and Siemens Venture Capital.
Founded: 1998
Website: www.kymatech.com

Syntherica

Brief: Synthetic antibodies

Syntherica is developing what it calls ï¿½Synthe-tide, a surrogate antibody technology.ï¿½ Basically, that means it makes synthetic antibodies using nucleotides, the building blocks of DNA, with advantages natural antibodies donï¿½t have. These synthetic antibodies can reduce the slow, cumbersome search for monoclonal antibodies from man-years to man-weeks. Also, because they’re not size-constrained the way natural antibodies are, Synthetide molecules may detect surface markers on cancer cells or other diseases not possible using natural antibodies. Synthetide size variability may help pinpoint cancer cell markers larger or smaller than those the natural immune system identifies. Synthetide detects binding molecules for new targets quickly, making them ideal, the company says, for biodefense. It may be necessary to detect not only known toxins and pathogens, but also variations engineered to elude detection.
Leadership: Joe Smith, CEO. Smith was formerly President of Novalon Pharmaceutical, which became Karo Bio USA. Smith co-founded Novalon in 1996. Prior to entering the biotechnology field, Smith practiced law in Washington, D.C. for many years, where he was a partner at Jenner & Block from 1990 to 1998. Smith holds J.D. and M.A. degrees from Yale.
Investment: Raised $650k from angels, over $1 million in grants.
Founded: 2002
Website: www.syntherica.com

Asklï¿½pios Bio-Pharmaceutical

Brief: Drug development for muscle disease

Starting a gene therapy company to develop treatments for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a fatal, inherited muscle disease, Asklï¿½pios BioPharmaceutical is a biotechnology company engaged in the development and delivery of gene therapies to develop treatment for muscular dystrophy, a fatal inherited muscle disease.
Market: The prevalence of Duchenneï¿½s and Beckerï¿½s muscular dystrophy (ï¿½DMDï¿½) as the most frequent lethal inheritable childhood disease constitutes an estimated potential market in excess of $3 billion.
Leadership: Sheila Mikhail, Interim CEO. Mikhail has been a co-founder of three biotech companies which have spun out of universities located in North Carolina. She is an attorney by training, with a law degree from Northwestern University.
Investment: Received grants to date.
Founded: 2003
Website: www.askbio.com

Regado Biosciences

Brief: Blood clot preventing drug development

Regado is involved in the discovery, development, and commercialization of antidote-controlled therapeutics. The initial focus of the Company is on developing antidote-controlled drugs that prevent or eliminate blood clots (ï¿½antithromboticsï¿½). Antidote-controlled neuromuscular blocking agents and applications to cell therapy are two future applications for the company.
Market: Antithrombotic therapies (anticoagulants, antiplatelets and thrombolytics) represent a current combined global market of approximately $10 billion. Regadoï¿½s antidote-controlled drugs address the fastest growing sector of this market, injectable antithrombotics, which represent a current global market over $4.4 billion, with total sales expected to exceed $7.5 billion by 2010.
Leadership: Douglas Gooding, President. Gooding serves as President of the Company and is also a Venture Partner with investor The Aurora Funds. Previously, Doug was a Principal with Aurora and led the investments in, and serves on the Boards of Directors of, Regado, Cropsolution, and Metabolon. Prior to Aurora, Doug was a Director of Business Development of Paradigm Genetics.
Investment: Initial seed funding from Aurora Funds.
Founded: 2001
Website: www.regadobiosciences.com

Advanced Liquid Logic

Brief: ï¿½Lab on a chipï¿½ technology

Advanced Liquid Logic develops microfluidic lab-on-a-chip devices for highly automated, rapid and portable medical diagnostics. The concept behind Advanced Liquid Logic is simpleï¿½take advantage of a natural property of liquid drops called surface tension. Surface tension keeps drops sphere-shaped instead of flattened out. The founders of the company have created a palm-sized microfluidic processor that uses electrical fields to manipulate nanoliter size droplets. The company plans to market their technology to automate common clinical diagnostic tests. The company says its essentially creating a point-of-care device that will enable doctors and clinical care staff to conduct laboratory tests right at a patientï¿½s bedside. According to the company, the palm-sized microfluidic processor can conduct all the activities that take place in a common clinical diagnostic laboratory. In addition, the volume of liquid needed is very small, so tests donï¿½t require as much chemical volume, and that reduces the overall cost of tests. This approach fully automates the diagnostic testing process and doesnï¿½t require highly experienced users.
Leadership: ALL is founded by two Duke electrical engineering postdocs. Michael Pollack, Ph.D., and Vamsee Pamula, Ph.D. both studied under electrical and computer engineering professor Richard Fair. Pollack received his Ph.D. in 2001 and Pamula received his Ph.D. in 2000.
Investment: The company has $350k in grants and is currently seeking additional funding.
Founded: 2004
Website: www.liquid-logic.com

3Dsolve

Brief: Simu-lation learning technologies

3Dsolve is developing e-learning 3D solutions for government, military, and corporate applications. Simulation learning technologies and applications are based upon computer simulations of real-world equipment and processes.
Market: Industry research firm Brandon-hall forecasts that the market for e-learning simulation will grow from $300 million in 2002 to $6.1 billion in 2006 and $37 billion in 2011.
Leadership: Richard Boyd, President. Prior to starting 3Dsolve, Richard Boyd was the Founder and CEO of 3dvillage. Prior to that, he was General Manager and VP of Sales for Virtus.
Investment: The company raised an undisclosed initial round at the beginning of 2004.
Website: www.3dsolve.com

Noverant

Brief: Regula-tory compliance solutions

Companies in the biotechnology, medical device and pharmaceutical industries are facing increasingly stringent regulatory compliance requirements from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Companies in these industries that are not compliant are subject to a variety of actions from the FDA including fines, product recalls and consent decrees. In response to these regulatory requirements, Raleigh-based Noverant is providing solutions to automate regulatory compliance and mitigate the risks that FDA-regulated companies face. Noverantï¿½s Compliance Framework is a collection of integrated software modules that helps automate regulatory compliance.
Market: The new Spin-Out Seeks to Assist Global Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Remain Compliant with FDA Good Manufacturing Process (GMP) Regulations. “It is extremely Companies regulated by the FDA have that have compliance problems can face fines reaching into the hundreds of millions of dollars and the company in question frequently faces a multitude of other remedies including product delays or production shutdown, according to Noverant.
Leadership: Kimo Kong, President and CEO. Kimo was previously the Vice President of International Operations at Oculan, where he was responsible for the expansion of the company’s operations and sales distribution for EMEA, Latin America and Asia. Prior to Oculan, he was the founder and EVP of Avesair, a spinout from Engage that provided mobile message technology for the global telecommunications industry. Prior to Avesair, Kimo was a VP/General Manager responsible for Engage’s Technologies division. Before Engage, he was Vice President of Sales for Accipiter, a start-up organization involved with interactive marketing applications.
Investment: Raised an initial $1.2 round from Research Triangle Ventures and Catalysta Partners.
Founded: 2002
Website: www.noverant.com

Biopheris

Brief: Cancer treatment

Biopheresis Technologies
Cary-based Biopheresis has developed a patented cancer technology treatment that has shown early promising preliminary results against breast, colon, prostate and lung cancers. The Biopheresis treatment removes soluble immuno-inhibitors that interfere with the human bodyï¿½s immune system. These immuno-inhibitors obstruct a powerful cancer-fighting agent of the immune system, tumor necrosis factor (TNF). Removing these inhibitors allows TNF and other cells to help fight cancers again. Company officials say the treatment may also provide improved patient well being. To date, in clinical evaluation Biopheresisï¿½ therapy has been generally well tolerated by patients.
Market: In the U.S. men have a 1 in 2 chance and women a 1 in 3 chance of developing cancer in their lifetime. According to industry analyst Datamonitor, the global cancer market, valued at about $20 billion in 2003, is expected to increase to about $45 billion by 2011.
Investment: Biopheresis has raised nearly $1 million from a non-profit cancer research foundation and from private individuals. The company is seeking an additional $5-10 million.
Founded: 2000
Website: www.biopheresistech.com

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