Corrections or additions?
This article by Barbara Fox was prepared for the November 20, 2002 edition of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
ETS Contract on Hold
Educational Testing Service’s CEO Kurt Landgraf was
expecting to win New Jersey’s contract for third grade standardized
tests (U.S. 1, November 13). But just as the awards were being announced,
another would-be contractor filed a protest. “We’re still hopeful
and we think that we can do the job. We are waiting to hear,”
says a spokesperson. “A similar thing happened in California when
we won the high school exit exam but the state still went with ETS
over Harcourt Brace, Riverside, and McGraw Hill.”
ETS already has contracts to do elementary school testing in Puerto
Rico and California. The one-year Puerto Rico contract, worth $7.2
million, is for tests in Spanish-language reading and math for grades
three through eight and grade 11. The $150 million California contract
is for testing 4.5 million students in grades 2 to 11 from 2003 to
2005. ETS also has California’s $50 million high school exit exam
contract, along with secondary school contracts in Maryland and Georgia.
In Maryland, ETS is developing content exams for grades seven through
12, and similar content exams are being developed in Georgia.
Top Of PageNew at College Park
Who says there’s no market for commercial real estate
in central New Jersey? That’s certainly not the case in the Route
1 corridor, where construction started this month on a the first phase
of a five-building research and development complex on Schalks Crossing
Road in Forrestal Center.
Developer Lawrence Zirinsky Associates is moving forward with construction
of a 345,000-square-foot complex approved by South Brunswick Township
planning board last spring. When completed, the complex will include
two 75,000-square-foot, four-story buildings; two 60,000-square-foot
one-story buildings; and a 75,000-square-foot one-story building.
Current construction will encompass the first phase of the project,
which includes 175 square feet of space in one four-story building
and two one-story buildings. The R&D space will contain 20-foot high
ceilings and heavy-duty electric and will be custom designed for each
tenant. National Business Parks (NBP), the manager of College Park,
will be responsible for supervision of construction, and leasing and
management of the buildings.
Says Vincent Marano, COO of NBP: “Despite some current economic
uncertainties in the market, business firms are willing to commit
to a well-planned, well-located new space of the kind that we can
provide at College Park. “We are currently in discussion with
several companies who are interested in substantial portions of space
in the new complex.”
He points out that College Park at Forrestal Center has been operating
at nearly 100 percent capacity for the past five years, with tenant
firms expanding to new space as soon as it becomes available. Current
tenants in the 815,000-square-foot, 11-building complex include Bloomberg,
FMC, Panasonic, Hitachi, Merrill Lynch, and Orchid BioSciences.
The new complex will face Schalks Crossing Road on a 31-acre parcel
contiguous to 2 and 4 Research Way and the 300 series buildings on
College Road East.
Prospects for NexMed, the company with products for
erectile dysfunction, were dealt a blow on Wednesday, November 13,
when it announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
has halted its open-label study of its flagship product, Alprox-TD
cream. On the good news side, the company can continue with two fully
enrolled Phase 3 pivotal studies of Alprox-TD, scheduled to be finished
in December.
Before the open-label study can proceed, NexMed must resolve some
issues about a 26-week study of the drug’s carcinogenic effect in
transgenic mice. Results showed that the cream’s penetration enhancement
agent was associated with an increase in benign dermal papillomas
in mice at the highest concentrations tested. The company says the
result does not suggest a safety issue, since the results were negative
at the lowest concentration tested.
NexMed may appeal the decision, but in any case this means a new drug
application will be delayed for about a year. It had hoped to make
this application in the second half of 2003.
NexMed now occupies its new 32,000 square foot laboratory and manufacturing
space on Twin Rivers Drive (U.S. 1, October 2). But in April Nexmed’s
auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers, had doubts about the ability of the
company to continue. At that time NexMed had a $16.2 million loss
on revenues of $68,089 for 2001.
NexMed Inc. (NEXM), 350 Corporate Boulevard, Robbinsville,Robbinsville 0869. Joseph Mo, CEO. 609-208-9688; fax, 609-208-1868.Www.nexmed.comTop Of PageAttorney DisbarredFor misappropriating client trust funds, Lemuel H. Blackburn was disbarredby the New Jersey Supreme Court on October 30. He admitted takingmoney from negligence settlements, using it to pay health insuranceand office rent, and then reimbursing clients from other fees. Noclient lost funds.Established in 1970, Blackburn’s general practice at 3131 PrincetonPike focused on general negligence and real estate, and he was theattorney for the board overseeing the city’s new Marriott hotel. Blackburngot his JD from Villanova in 1965 and was the first black presidentof the Mercer Bar Association.Top Of PageDeathsLawrence P. Mottley, 54, on August 14, in a traffic accidentwhile on vacation. He was a dispatcher with A-1 Limousine on EmmonsDrive. Also killed in the accident were his two sons, David, 12, andAlexander, 9.JoAnne “Jodi” Fessler, 50, on November 16. Shewas a lab instructor in the biology department at Mercer County CommunityCollege and a paramedic and instructor of CPR and first aid.Virginia Louise Baunach, 63, died recently at her homein Princeton. A writer for Bloomberg News, she formerly had workedat the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.Next StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
