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.”
3-Dimensional Pharmaceuticals Inc., 8 Clarke Drive,Cedar Brook Corporate Center, Cranbury 08523. Richard Soll.610-458-8959;fax, 609-458-6056. Home page: www.3dp.com.Advanced Medicine East, 650-808-6000 in California,609-655-6900 in New Jersey. Home page: www.incara.com.Top Of PageExpansionsPolygenesis Corporation, 4270 Route 1 North, Suite1, 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 Route1 North to an address of 4262 in the same office park and added 1,500feet for a total of 4,000. Barry Ginsberg of Bedminster has designedthe new space and it is being built out by Innovative GeneralContracting,to be ready in March. The firm has purchased a new computer network,and the laboratory is replete with a full array of testing equipmentranging from oscilloscopes to spectrometers.Henry Wieck, the president, has degrees from Brooklyn College, Classof 1972, and Rutgers, and was an early contributor to I-STAT, thediagnostic blood analysis equipment company.Polygenesis offers complete technology development capabilities,includingmechanical design, software, electronics, and rapid prototyping (U.S.1, August 30). Its MedManager monitors patient compliance with takingmedication.Novaflux Technologies, 1 Wall Street, Princeton08540. M.E. Labib, president. 609-683-0215; fax, 609-683-5003. Homepage: www.novaflux.com.Finding new ways to clean high-tech medical equipment for re-use canbe a lucrative R&D business, as M.E. Labib has discovered. His firm,Novaflux Technologies, formerly known as Princeton Trade andTechnologies,has doubled its space at Research Park and opened a pilot facilityat 100 Jersey Avenue in New Brunswick.The basic business is removing contaminants from tiny tubes. Princetonlaboratory focuses on medical and biotechnology applications, suchas high level disinfection of flexible endoscopes and reprocessinghemodialyzers for dialysis clinics. Other technologies are relatedto novel water treatment and topical drug applications —antimicrobialand antiviral applications.Steve Weitzel, director of validation, says that Novaflux’ methodsare effective, low in cost, and minimize the effect on theenvironment.”For the medical devices, we are developing and applyingtechnologyfor 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, providethe service in its own facilities, and license the technology to othermanufacturers.Akros Pharma Inc., 214 Carnegie Center, Suite 302,Princeton 08540. Tatsuya Yoneyama, president. 609-919-9570; fax,609-919-9575.A 13-year-old firm, based in Tokyo, Japan, has quadrupled in sizesince it opened an office here last fall and has moved to an 8,100square foot space in the Carnegie Center. Akros — the Greek wordfor pinnacle — is overseeing clinical trials in the U.S. andEurope,establishing relationships with biotech companies and universities,and arranging licensing agreements.Top Of PageNew in TownShire US Inc., 212 Carnegie Center, CarnegieExecutiveCenter, Suite 206, Princeton 08540. Lorraine A. Pronek, executiveassistant. 609-919-6330; fax, 609-520-1806.The business development office of a pharmaceutical company, ShirePharmaceutical, moved to the Carnegie Center last year. It has itsheadquarters in the U.K. and its U.S. headquarters in Kentucky.Top Of PageDown-SizingGynetics Inc., 3371 Route 1, Suite 200,Lawrenceville08648. Norman Proulx, president and CEO. 609-919-1931; fax,609-919-9409.Home page: www.gynetics.com and www.preven.comGynetics, a firm that develops and markets drugs for women’shealthcare,moved from Raider Boulevard in Belle Mead to smaller quarters closerto town, across from the Mercer Mall. It has five employees and 2,500square feet. Its first product, the PREVEN Emergency ContraceptiveKit, was the first FDA-approved product designed to prevent pregnancywithin 72 hours of unprotected intercourse.Top Of PageCrosstown MovesBenecard Services, 168 Franklin Corner Road, Suite201, Lawrenceville 08648. Douglas R. Forrester, president.609-219-0400.Home page: www.benecard.com.Douglas Forrester moved his 10-year-old benefitmanagementfirm from 118 West State Street in Trenton to Franklin Corner Road.He subcontracts to insurance companies to manage prescription andvision programs for public and private sponsors of benefit plans.As a Prescription Benefit Manager (PBM) he partners with a claimprocessor,National Prescription Administrators, to administer whatever benefitdesign has been established by the employer. Most of his clients arecompanies with at least 50 workers and are referred by a broker.A philosophy and government major at Harvard, Class of 1975, Forresterwas the assistant state treasurer in the Kean and Florioadministrations,and was also director of pensions and benefits. He has also taughtat the University of Pennsylvania. In the late 1980s he organizedthe anniversary celebration for the War of the Worlds in West Windsor,and he also served one year as mayor and two terms on the townshipcommittee.The relationship between PBMs and pharmaceuticals is a public policyissue that deserves a lot more attention than it has received, saysForrester. “People are finally waking up to how direct to consumeradvertising is influencing the way PBMs operate. Direct to consumeradvertising is counterproductive to public health and well being.People should not be sold drugs like they are sold cars.”Top Of PageLeaving TownClinical Trial Services, Drug Accountability andDisposalDivision, 4204 Tech Avenue, Durham, NC 27704; 919-479-8850. Homepage: www.cts-usa.com.Clinical Trial Services moved from 11 Princess Road to Durham, NorthCarolina. It does packaging, distribution, accountability, anddisposalof new and experimental drugs used in clinical research trials, andwas formerly known as J. Dana Associates Inc.Advanced Magnetics Inc. (AVM), 104 Carnegie Center,Suite 202, Princeton 08540-6232. Leonard M. Baum, senior vicepresident.609-520-8505; fax, 609-520-0620.The regulatory affairs division of this pharmaceutical company wasclosed and moved to the headquarters office: 61 Mooney Street,Cambridge02138-1038, 617-497-2070. It develops and manufactures MRI contrastagents useful for cancer and liver disease.The Medicines Company, 212 Carnegie Center, Suite206, Princeton 08540. 617-225-9099; fax, 609-720-9810.This pharmaceutical services company moved from the Carnegie ExecutiveCenter to Cambridge, Massachusetts.Top Of PageDeathsNellie Hulit Meyers, 84, on February 4. She was abookkeeperfor Hulit’s shoes, founded by her father.Anthony F. LaPlaca Sr., 83, on February 5. He was a homebuilder and business consultant and the father of the owner of Joe’sMill Hill Saloon.Cosmo A. Matticoli, 83, on January 7. He had been thelandscaper at Princeton Shopping Center.Corrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
