By Allan Maurer
BALTIMORE, MD – BioMarker Strategies has raised $1.7 million led by the charity organization the Abell Foundation, in conjunction with the Maryland Biotechnology investment incentive tax program. The company is developing a test to help oncologists determine the best drug regimen for cancer patients.
One of the Abell Foundation’s goals is to promote job growth and the quality of life in the Baltimore region.
The Maryland Biotechnology Investment Incentive Tax Credit Program, is a unique state program designed to stimulate investment in early stage Maryland-based biotechnology companies.
The five employee company expects to make a couple of additional hires.
Company President Scott Allocco was very aggressive in working to land the investment in time for the investors to benefit from the Maryland tax incentive program, which required the investments to close by the end of August. “You had to be aggreesive,” he told TechJournal South.
“The state only had the money to cover the first 12 to 14 companies in line and there were over 20. We had to line up these investors in April, May and June and they had to fill out an application with my company application by July 1. They had to invest by the end of August or lose the credit.
The investors, who put slightly more than the total amount eligible for the state incentive into the company, will receive a total of $850,000 in tax credits.
The company is developing a novel automated tumor biopsy processing and testing system, called SnapPath, that is being designed to quickly test and analyze a patient’s live solid tumor sample at the point of biopsy.
The company is also developing a series of functional, pathway-based, ex vivo biomarker tests to help guide an oncologist’s use of targeted cancer therapeutics.
The SnapPath technology is also being designed to reduce patient waiting times for molecular diagnostic test results from several weeks to several hours.
“Our scientific founder, Dr. Douglas Clark, is director of Cytopathology at Johns Hopkins,” says Allocco. “He was concerned that the methods of processing a tumor biopsy, developed during the Civil War, were not conducive to 21st century diagnostics.”
Founded three years ago, BioMarker began development of a test that can be done immediately on live tumor cells at the time the biopsy is performed instead of preserving it for later examination under a microscope.
That, says Allocco, offers many advantages. One is to test the live tumor cells for their specific cellular pathways, which can then be blocked to kill the tumor cells.
The information helps target cancer drugs more effectively. It can also help health plans decide to pay for an expensive drug because the test determines it is likely to work, Allocco says.
Other firms working on various ways to test live tumor cells include Modality and Precision Therapeutics.
Allocco says BioMarker has also applied for a Small Business Innovation Research grant and that additional funding, if approved, will help determine the company’s timetable for getting its beta testing completed.
The company is one of the first commercial tenants at the Johns Hopkins Science + Technology Park in East Baltimore developed by the Forest City-New East Baltimore Partnership.
The company’s CEO, Kären Olson, was recently awarded the “Leadership in BioScience Award” by the Greater Baltimore Committee and was a previous Ernst & Young Maryland Entrepreneur of the Year.
Online: www.biomarkerstrategies.com
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