Biotech Target: Pompe’s Disease
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This article was prepared for the July 25, 2001 edition of U.S. 1
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Biotech and Real Estate Moves
Top Of PageBiotech Target: Pompe’s Disease
The building at 353 Nassau Street, formerly occupied
by the Center for Healthcare Strategies (CHS), now houses Novazyme
Pharmaceuticals Inc, a drug development firm. CHS is a nonprofit that
administers health care programs funded by foundations, principally
the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. It moved from 6,000 feet on Nassau
Street to 12,000 feet on Lenox Drive.
Novazyme, a drug development firm, is doing research on Pompe’s
disease.
The firm has raised $24 million in two rounds of preferred stock from
investors that include Nassau Street-based HealthCare Ventures,
Catalyst
Health & Technology Partners in Boston, and the Perseus-Soros
Biopharmaceutical
Fund and Morgan Stanley, both in New York. Michael Titus, Novazyme’s
new senior director of regulatory affairs, had been vice president
of operations at Cytogen Corporation on College Road.
John Crowley, the CEO, has had two of his three children diagnosed
with Pompe’s disease, a rare form of muscular dystrophy that is the
lead target of this company. The son of a police officer in Englewood,
Crowley graduated from Georgetown University in 1989, earned a law
degree from Notre Dame, and practiced healthcare law in Indianapolis.
He earned his MBA at Harvard and did marketing and business strategy
at Bristol-Myers Squibb before helping to found this company.
Novazyme aims to speed up the clinical development of therapeutic
programs developed by William M. Canfield at the University of
Oklahoma
Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City. It has announced “highly
promising results” from pre-clinical studies in laboratory animals
engineered to have Pompe’s disease, which degrades muscles and can
be fatal. About 5,000 people nationwide have this rare, lysosomal
storage disease that is usually fatal in early childhood.
Novazyme Pharmaceuticals Inc., 353 Nassau Street,Princeton 08540. John Crowley, CEO. 609-683-4400; fax, 609-683-1771.Home page: www.novazyme.comCenter for Health Care Strategies Inc., 1009 LenoxDrive, Suite 204, Lawrenceville 08648. Stephen A. Somers PhD,president.609-279-0700 or 609-895-8101; fax, 609-895-9648. Home page:www.chcs.org.Top Of PageHealth ExpansionsPeproTech Inc., 5 Crescent Avenue, PrincetonBusinessPark, Suite B-1, Box 275, Rocky Hill 08553-0275. Robert Goldman,director.609-497-0253; fax, 609-497-0321.PeproTech provides research materials — vials ofpowdered recombinant proteins — to scientists at universitiesand pharmaceutical companies around the world, and with the upswingin biotech research, the company is doing well. The 17-employee firmstarted with one suite at Princeton Business Park in 1988 and recentlymoved into its sixth space.The company has but one major competitor, says a spokesperson.PeproTechhas found an efficient and profitable way to manufacture recombinantproteins for research use; it expresses the proteins in e-colibacteriaand sells the powder in vials worth $65 to $5,000.Therics Inc., 115 Campus Drive, University Square,Princeton 08540. Jim Wavle, president/CEO. 609-514-7200; fax,609-514-7219.Www.therics.comThe medical products firm has signed a lease for 16,000additionalsquare feet at 104 University Square, for a total of 56,400 feet.”We took a great deal more space, are in the process ofrenovating,and will be moving into it progressively, starting in fourth quarterand into next year,” says Jim Wavle, president and CEO. Thecompany’sTheriForm fabrication process involves three-dimensional printing.Tom Giannone and Robert Bull of Julian J. Studley Inc. representedTherics in the extension of the existing lease, and Steve Jenningsrepresented the landlord, Reckson Associates Realty Corp. Giannoneexplains that Therics started out with a small sublease inalready-builtout space from Sterling Drug and gradually expanded so it now occupiesall three of the buildings here. It has an 18,000-foot laboratoryand pilot plant on one side. On the other side, it has expanded from5,600 to 22,600 feet and now occupies the whole building. The latestacquisition is 16,000 square feet in the largest, center buildingthat was formerly occupied by LogicWorks, now part of ComputerAssociates.Princeton Softech has the other half of this building.Neil Laboratories Inc., 55 Lake Drive, Box 1088,Hightstown 08520. Bharat Patel, president. 609-448-5500; fax,609-443-9316.The generic drug company bought Primedia’s building at 10 Lake Driveand will expand its manufacturing operations.Top Of PageValiGen Moves To HopewellIn August ValiGen U.S. Inc. will begin to move itsoperationsfrom 45,000 square feet in Newtown, PA, to 72,000 feet in the formerAT&T building on Carter Road. It is well funded; before the stockmarket declined last year ValiGen made a private placement of $26million. Headed by Douglas Watson, ValiGen works with genemodificationtechnology. It has 55 employees in Newtown (13 people at otherlocations)and expects to add about 15 people on Carter Road.Maryland-based Townsend Properties owns the site and is doing a $10million fitout job for its new tenant. Townsend also owns the 225,000building on the same property that is going to be vacated by Lucent.Townsend recently announced that it will donate an adjoining 190-acreparcel, which includes a vacant conference center and an employeedormitory, to Hopewell Township.ValiGen (U.S.) Inc., 350 Carter Road, c/o 300PheasantRun, Newtown 18940. Douglas G. Watson, president and CEO.215-504-4444;fax, 215-504-4545. Www.valigen.comTop Of PageExpansionsKinko’s Copy Center, 33 Witherspoon Street,Princeton08542. Bill Carty, manager. 609-921-2679; fax, 609-921-1647.Www.kinkos.comAfter 12 years doing business practically next door to PrincetonUniversity, Kinko’s Copy Center is moving out on Route 1 and intoNassau Park, the big box shopping center that has Wal-Mart and HomeDepot. The move to 731 Nassau Park Boulevard is scheduled forNovember.Bill Carty, the branch manager of the Ventura, California-based firm,will nearly double his staff, from 15 to 25 or 30 employees, in 6,300square feet. The 24-hour operation will have all the services thatit does now, including oversize copies, computer rental, and a KodakPictureMaker kiosk.The new location may be short distance away in terms of actual milesbut, psychologically, it is leagues away. A spokesperson denies thatKinkos has given up on the university market and says that, not onlyis Kinko’s going to be fulfilling the needs of students but that itcan also now provide services to businesses.DPRA Inc., 338 Wall Street, Princeton 08540. TonyMontrone, vice president. 609-279-2123; fax, 609-279-2150.Www.dpra.comDPRA, an environmental health and safety consulting firm, tookover a big chunk of space that Simstar vacated in its move fromResearchPark to the Carnegie Center. This expansion from 1,800 square feteto 4,500 square feet is due, in large part, to DPRA’s $45 millioncontract with the U.S. Postal Service. The Princeton office is oneof eight United States branches of the Kansas-based company that willservice this contract.The contract involves environmental compliance support to the U.S.Postal Service and replaces more than 270 existing contracts. Threeother firms — Roy F. Weston Inc., URS Corporation, and Earth Tech— were also selected for the work. “There is plenty of workto be shared by the four firms,” says Tony Montrone, vicepresidentof DPRA’s Princeton office.An economics major at Syracuse, Class of 1973, Montrone has an MBAin management from Michigan State, and spent 12 years at the federalEnvironmental Protection Agency, where he headed the hazardous wasteenforcement program and the groundwater task force, then worked for10 years in the Arthur D. Little environmental group in Cambridge.He spent 18 months as a principal in Environ before opening thePrincetonoffice of DPRA. For one of his earlier jobs he spent a year in -50degree weather checking out the Trans Alaska Pipeline System for theU.S. Congress.”New Jersey is one of the few states segmented into two differentpostal service areas,” says Montrone. We are part of the New YorkMetro area, and south of Trenton is the Middle Atlantic area, withits headquarters in Pittsburgh. We service both areas as well as theheadquarters in Washington.”Top Of PageNew in TownComputer America Training Centers Inc., 1IndependenceWay, Princeton 08540. Crystal Murphy, manager. 609-734-9216. Homepage: www.catrainingcenters.comCrystal Murphy has opened a branch of the firm that equips and rentsrooms for computer training. Based in suburban Chicago, it has 22sites around the country, including in Philadelphia and Parsippany.The decision to open an eight-room site in Princeton is, in part,based on a contract with Educational Testing Service to provide venuesfor test scoring.”Hotels don’t typically tend to the needs of the instructors whoare looking to set up a room,” says Bob Stokes, spokesperson.Founded by Birger Nyborg, the company has 30 people at itsheadquartersin Chamberg, a suburb of Chicago, and nearly 40 workers distributedamong the branches.The company aims for a rental rate of 60 percent. Its rooms rent forfrom $900 to $1,200 per day including all the equipment, an LCDprojector,a high-speed Internet connection, and catering for the students —continental breakfast and afternoon snacks. Custom-made desks allowfor two students per computer terminal and monitors mounted low inthe desks so the teacher is easily visible.Top Of PageCrosstown MovesGary Mertz Architect, 65 South Main Street,BuildingC, Box 1016, Pennington 08534. 609-737-7976; fax, 609-430-0631. Homepage: www.mertzarchitects.comGary Mertz moved his four-person firm back to 1,000 square feet inPennington Office Park, 65 Main Street, after a short period in astand-alone building in Lawrence. “This is where our client baseis, and this space is more conducive to a professionalenvironment,”he says.The firm focuses on residential work but also does such commercialwork as additions to Lakeview Child Centers, the NovaSoft buildingon Quakerbridge Road, an adult day care center in Orange, a 40,000square foot building for Joe Pintinalli diagonally across fromNovaSoft,and various residential projects.Mertz, age 44, grew up in Bergen County, where his mother is agerontologistand his father worked for National Industries for the Blind. As aresult of vocational testing he worked as a carpenter for four years,then went to North Carolina State, and studied architecture at Drexel.He started this company in 1996. His wife, Sarah, is associateexecutivedirector for the American Red Cross on Alexander Road.Borden-Perlman Insurance, 2850 Brunswick Pike,Box 6710, Lawrenceville 08648-6710. Douglas C. Borden, president.609-896-3434; fax, 609-895-1468. Home page: www.bordenperlman.comBorden Perlman Insurance, a property and casualty agency, moved from3 Princess Road to Brunswick Pike. The company offers insurance,bonds,risk management, and it is the result of a 1995 merger between WSBorden Co., which originally specialized in industrial andmanufacturinginsurances and operated at 224 West State Street, and PerlmanInsurance,which sold mostly commercial and retail insurance from 133 FranklinCorner Road.Top Of PageDown-SizingThe Mosso Group Inc., 436 Wall Street, Princeton08540. Lisa A. Mosso, project director. 609-466-1234.The Mosso Group has closed its office in Research Park and continuesoperating at its office at 109 Cherry Brook Drive. Lisa Mosso’sfather,Gus Mosso, founded the company in 1990; it specializes in planningmedical symposia.Top Of PageStock NewsOpinion Research Corporation (ORCI), 23 OrchardRoad, Suite 1, Box 183, Princeton 08542-0183. John Short, CEO.908-281-5100;fax, 908-281-5103. Www.opinionresearch.comOn Wednesday, July 18, the market research firm’s share were to begintrading on Nasdaq as ORCI. Shares had been trading on the AmericanStock Exchange (AMEX) under the symbol “OPI.” “This ispart of our plan to increase the visibility of Opinion Research withinthe investment community and to improve our stock’s liquidity,”says John F. Short, chairman and CEO.Founded in 1938, Opinion Research bills itself as “ameasurement-basedglobal marketing services firm” with market intelligence,consulting,training and teleservices.Top Of PageHaase Makes GoodWhen Steven Haase invested the proceeds from sellingPrinceton Learning Systems into Trainfans, a company that sells videosof moving trains, he had high hopes of landing an important contractwith Amtrak to produce videos of the then-new high-speed Acela. Nowhe has it, a video production and merchandise distribution agreementfeaturing Amtrak’s Acela Express, the nation’s first high-speed trainservice.Trainfans will produce and distribute video and DVD products aboutAcela Express and release them this fall. Amtrak has already begunto leverage its Amtrak and Acela brand names with other merchandise.Trainfans also has alliances with NJ Transit and SoutheasternPennsylvaniaTransit Authority (SEPTA).”Aligning with Trainfans regarding this video and merchandisingventure allows us to create entertaining products that have greatappeal to the growing train enthusiast marketplace — which isa significant revenue opportunity for both parties,” says DeborahVarnado, Amtrak’s director of merchandising.”The launch of Amtrak’s Acela Express has represented a definingevent for American transportation,” says Haase. “We aredelightedto work with Amtrak to produce exciting video and DVD products thatwill capture an inside look at the superior amenities, speed,world-classservice and the overall launch of the Acela Express, which isresponsiblefor changing the way people travel.””We worked hard on this,” says Barbara Wasylyk, vice presidentof Trainfans, “and now that it has come through, we are thrilledto have this opportunity.”Trainfans, Inc., 83 Princeton Avenue, Hopewell08525. 609-466-0880; fax, 609-466-8114. Steven T. Haase, principal.E-mail: stevenh@trainfans.com Home page: www.trainfans.comTop Of PageContracts AwardedInsureHiTech.com Inc., 100 Village Boulevard, Suite200, Princeton 08540. Richard A. Maloy Jr., president and CEO.609-987-0221;fax, 609-987-0490. Home page: www.insurehitech.comAnother Princeton startup, Insure Hi-Tech, has also scored amajor win that will bolster its chances of success. The E-businessproperty and casualty insurance brokerage received a second roundof financing worth $4.35 million from a trio of investors that includeJ.P. Morgan Corsair II Capital Partners, a $1 billion private equityfund that contributed $10 million to the first round. The firm willexpand its technology platform for middle market technology clientsand add to its brokerage sales and service team.”In the worst fund raising market in 10 years,” says RichardA. Maloy, founder and CEO, “InsureHiTech was able to securefundingfrom our initial investor and our partners within the industry. Thatsends a very strong message that our solution will change the waycommercial insurance data processing will be delivered.”The Chauncey Group International, 664 RosedaleRoad, Princeton 08540-0001. Judith D. Moore, president & CEO.609-720-6500;fax, 609-720-6550. Home page: www.chauncey.comThe Chauncey Group chalked up another contract — to provideagency testing services to the Liaison Council on Certification forthe Surgical Technologist, the national certifying body for surgicaltechnologists and first assistants, based in Englewood, Colorado.Some 5,000 candidates seek certification each year.After the Chauncey Group does job analyses, it will develop certifyingexaminations, administer them as computer-based tests through itsBaltimore-based partner, Prometric, and handle the scoring andreportingof the results. Last year the Chauncey Group — a for-profitspinoffof Educational Testing Service — administered certification andlicensing examinations to over 2 million candidates viapaper-and-pencil,computer-based, and Internet-based testing in 35 countries.Princeton Video Image Inc. (PVI) (PVII), 15PrincessRoad, Lawrenceville 08648. Dennis P. Wilkinson, president and CEO.609-912-9400; fax, 609-912-0044. Www.pvimage.comAn Australian firm, Pineapplehead Ltd., has agreed to distributePrincetonVideo Image’s advertising images and solutions in television marketsin Australia and New Zealand. In December PVI had bought a Mexicancompany for the purpose of using its virtual advertising technologyin soccer telecasts. The company develops, makes, and sells computerhardware and software for video processing for television advertisingproduction.StatementOne, 1009 Lenox Drive, Suite 103,Lawrenceville08648. 609-620-5800; fax, 609-620-5801. Www.statementone.comCambridge Investment Research, based in Fairfield, Iowa, has agreedto use StatementOne’s financial data consolidation and performancereporting platform. StatementOne, a web-based platform for deliveringconsolidated financial statements and performance reporting, managesaccount data for more than 13,000 financial advisors and 1 millioninvestors. Cambridge is an independent broker dealer with 400advisors.Top Of PageOffice ClosedCareer Resource Group, 214 Carnegie Center, Suite105, Princeton 08540. Karen Smith-Moore, branch manager. 609-243-8960;fax, 609-243-8970. Home page: www.careerresourcegroup.comCareer Resource Group, a placement firm formerly known as the CittoneGroup, closed its office at 214 Carnegie Center in early June. MicheleMayer, office manager of the company’s Marlton office, says Princetonoperations will be handled from that office. “It just wasn’t therefor us,” she says of the reason the three-person firm decidedto leave the Princeton area.The downturn in business began even before recession talk began somesix months ago, according to Mayer, who says none of the employeesfrom the Carnegie Center office made the move to Marlton. She declinedto provide details on whether they had been laid off.Top Of PageLeaving TownDopak Inc., 2010 Eastpark Boulevard, Cranbury08512.609-655-3700; fax, 609-655-4888. Home page: www.dopak.comAt the end of June this petrochemical-based business moved to 9572Kempewood, Houston TX 77080, 713-460-8311; fax, 713-460-8578. Noneof the 10 people here accepted transfers.”Our main business is in the Gulf Coast area, so the decisionwas made to move the office,” says a spokesperson. Martin Ball,vice president, is in charge of this part of a Dutch company namedDovianus. Dopak makes and sells liquid process samplers to thepetrochemicalindustry.Previous StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
