Corrections or additions?
These articles were prepared for the February 14,
2001 edition of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
3-Dimensional Pharmaceuticals
Sad news for one company can be good for another. In
this case, the good news was laboratory space, ready and waiting.
Advanced Medicine East (which started its life here as Transcell
Technologies)
moved everything, lock, stock, and barrel, out of Cedar Brook
Corporate
Center, leaving a well-equipped 32,000-foot laboratory behind. A
Pennsylvania
biotech, 3-Dimensional Pharmaceuticals, has seized this opportunity
to sublease state-of-the-art laboratory facility.
"It is very difficult to find existing laboratory space,"
says Scott Horvitz, vice president of finance at the company based
in Exton, Pennsylvania. It went public in August and trades on Nasdaq
as DDDP. "And this was predominately chemistry space, and we have
a strong emphasis in chemistry, with some other disciplines as
well."
This week 3-D Pharmaceuticals is moving into 8 Clarke Drive, at Route
130 and Dey Road. The staff will be 15 scientists and support
personnel,
but the space will hold 60 to 80 people, and these will be new hires.
Positions are open in combinatorial, medicinal, analytical, and
computational
chemistry, and also in protein biochemistry, molecular and cellular
biology, and crystallography. A facilities manager and systems
administrator
are also being hired.
The company has 40,000 feet in Exton, Pennsylvania, and Horvitz
reveals
that, on a long-term basis, it is beginning to consider a future space
somewhere between Exton and Cranbury in Mercer or Bucks County. 3DP
has grown by 30 percent, to 135 people, since its IPO in August, when
bids came in at the high end of the expected scale ($15) and the
maximum
number of shares, 5.75 million, were sold.
Roger F. Bone (senior vice president of R&D and a resident of
Somerville)
and Richard M. Soll (vice president of chemistry who lives in
Lawrenceville)
will split their time between the two facilities.
The name of the company dates back to when it was doing X-ray
crystallography
and structure-based drug design, which involves understanding the
three-dimensional structure of a target. It bills itself as "a
post-genomics drug discovery company dedicated to revolutionizing
a small-molecule discovery." One of its proprietary technologies
that accelerates drug discovery is DiscoverWorks, which
"capitalizes
on opportunities arising from human genome sequencing."
"We view this expansion as the continued progress of our
company,"
said David C. U’Prichard, CEO. "We are very proud of our
innovative
platforms for discovering new drugs in the post-genomics era."
"We believe we have a blend of superlative scientific, business
and administrative personnel at 3DP working together to advance
medical
science through the discovery of novel drug therapies," says Bone.
"The environment is stimulating and collegial."
Cedar Brook Corporate Center, Cranbury 08523. Richard Soll.
610-458-8959;
fax, 609-458-6056. Home page: www.3dp.com.
609-655-6900 in New Jersey. Home page: www.incara.com.
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Expansions
1, Monmouth Junction 08852. Henry Wieck PhD, president. 732-355-1001;
fax, 732-355-1002. Home page: www.polygenesis.com.
The five-year-old R&D development company expanded from 4270 Route
1 North to an address of 4262 in the same office park and added 1,500
feet for a total of 4,000. Barry Ginsberg of Bedminster has designed
the new space and it is being built out by Innovative General
Contracting,
to be ready in March. The firm has purchased a new computer network,
and the laboratory is replete with a full array of testing equipment
ranging from oscilloscopes to spectrometers.
Henry Wieck, the president, has degrees from Brooklyn College, Class
of 1972, and Rutgers, and was an early contributor to I-STAT, the
diagnostic blood analysis equipment company.
Polygenesis offers complete technology development capabilities,
including
mechanical design, software, electronics, and rapid prototyping (U.S.
1, August 30). Its MedManager monitors patient compliance with taking
medication.
08540. M.E. Labib, president. 609-683-0215; fax, 609-683-5003. Home
page: www.novaflux.com.
Finding new ways to clean high-tech medical equipment for re-use can
be a lucrative R&D business, as M.E. Labib has discovered. His firm,
Novaflux Technologies, formerly known as Princeton Trade and
Technologies,
has doubled its space at Research Park and opened a pilot facility
at 100 Jersey Avenue in New Brunswick.
The basic business is removing contaminants from tiny tubes. Princeton
laboratory focuses on medical and biotechnology applications, such
as high level disinfection of flexible endoscopes and reprocessing
hemodialyzers for dialysis clinics. Other technologies are related
to novel water treatment and topical drug applications —
antimicrobial
and antiviral applications.
Steve Weitzel, director of validation, says that Novaflux’ methods
are effective, low in cost, and minimize the effect on the
environment.
"For the medical devices, we are developing and applying
technology
for waste water and water purification membranes on a pilot basis.
In New Brunswick we are reprocessing reverse osmosis membranes,"
says Weitzel. The expanding company will sell the equipment, provide
the service in its own facilities, and license the technology to other
manufacturers.
Princeton 08540. Tatsuya Yoneyama, president. 609-919-9570; fax,
609-919-9575.
A 13-year-old firm, based in Tokyo, Japan, has quadrupled in size
since it opened an office here last fall and has moved to an 8,100
square foot space in the Carnegie Center. Akros — the Greek word
for pinnacle — is overseeing clinical trials in the U.S. and
Europe,
establishing relationships with biotech companies and universities,
and arranging licensing agreements.
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New in Town
Executive
Center, Suite 206, Princeton 08540. Lorraine A. Pronek, executive
assistant. 609-919-6330; fax, 609-520-1806.
The business development office of a pharmaceutical company, Shire
Pharmaceutical, moved to the Carnegie Center last year. It has its
headquarters in the U.K. and its U.S. headquarters in Kentucky.
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Down-Sizing
Lawrenceville
08648. Norman Proulx, president and CEO. 609-919-1931; fax,
609-919-9409.
Home page: www.gynetics.com and www.preven.com
Gynetics, a firm that develops and markets drugs for women’s
healthcare,
moved from Raider Boulevard in Belle Mead to smaller quarters closer
to town, across from the Mercer Mall. It has five employees and 2,500
square feet. Its first product, the PREVEN Emergency Contraceptive
Kit, was the first FDA-approved product designed to prevent pregnancy
within 72 hours of unprotected intercourse.
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Crosstown Moves
201, Lawrenceville 08648. Douglas R. Forrester, president.
609-219-0400.
Home page: www.benecard.com.
Douglas Forrester moved his 10-year-old benefit
management
firm from 118 West State Street in Trenton to Franklin Corner Road.
He subcontracts to insurance companies to manage prescription and
vision programs for public and private sponsors of benefit plans.
As a Prescription Benefit Manager (PBM) he partners with a claim
processor,
National Prescription Administrators, to administer whatever benefit
design has been established by the employer. Most of his clients are
companies with at least 50 workers and are referred by a broker.
A philosophy and government major at Harvard, Class of 1975, Forrester
was the assistant state treasurer in the Kean and Florio
administrations,
and was also director of pensions and benefits. He has also taught
at the University of Pennsylvania. In the late 1980s he organized
the anniversary celebration for the War of the Worlds in West Windsor,
and he also served one year as mayor and two terms on the township
committee.
The relationship between PBMs and pharmaceuticals is a public policy
issue that deserves a lot more attention than it has received, says
Forrester. "People are finally waking up to how direct to consumer
advertising is influencing the way PBMs operate. Direct to consumer
advertising is counterproductive to public health and well being.
People should not be sold drugs like they are sold cars."
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Leaving Town
Disposal
Division, 4204 Tech Avenue, Durham, NC 27704; 919-479-8850. Home
page: www.cts-usa.com.
Clinical Trial Services moved from 11 Princess Road to Durham, North
Carolina. It does packaging, distribution, accountability, and
disposal
of new and experimental drugs used in clinical research trials, and
was formerly known as J. Dana Associates Inc.
Suite 202, Princeton 08540-6232. Leonard M. Baum, senior vice
president.
609-520-8505; fax, 609-520-0620.
The regulatory affairs division of this pharmaceutical company was
closed and moved to the headquarters office: 61 Mooney Street,
Cambridge
02138-1038, 617-497-2070. It develops and manufactures MRI contrast
agents useful for cancer and liver disease.
206, Princeton 08540. 617-225-9099; fax, 609-720-9810.
This pharmaceutical services company moved from the Carnegie Executive
Center to Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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Deaths
bookkeeper
for Hulit’s shoes, founded by her father.
builder and business consultant and the father of the owner of Joe’s
Mill Hill Saloon.
landscaper at Princeton Shopping Center.
Corrections or additions?
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— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
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