Corrections or additions?
These articles were published in U.S. 1 Newspaper on August 11, 1999. All rights reserved.
Intercardia/Incara Influx
The company founded by Princeton University’s Daniel
Kahne is $1 million richer as of Monday, August 9. Founded as Transcell
Technologies, more recently known as Intercardia Research Laboratories,
the company had been going through some hard times, dropping from
35 employees to half that number at Cedar Brook Corporate Center.
But on Monday it received a milestone payment of $1.5 million from
Merck, with $500,000 going to the university, and $1 million to the
company. The payment is for research on an antibiotic of last resort
— a look alike to the powerful vancomycin, perhaps able to combat
increasingly resistant staphylococci or “superbugs.” In various
models Merck was able to synthesize the firm’s specified compounds
of new antibiotics and to prove that they don’t damage the host.
“Determining how micro-organisms develop resistance and how to
combat that resistance remains an important scientific challenge,”
says Kahne, the scientific founder. “It’s exciting to be part
of a collaboration that translates basic research into a program that
has the potential to address a significant clinical problem.”
The company that bought Transcell Technologies was founded as Intercardia
by a North Carolina-based firm named Interneuron. Though Interneuron
maintains a majority ownership in Intercardia, it restructured last
month. Since four of Intercardia’s five programs were not connected
with cardiovascular disease, it changed Intercardia’s name to Incara.
It also took majority ownership of the heart-related drug, Bextra.
Just three weeks later, Bextra clinical trials were halted, due to
“disappointing” results. Bextra, it seems, did not produce
a “statistically significant benefit for the patient population
as a whole.”
The other four programs, including the one in Princeton, are still
viable. Earlier this year the Princeton lab had quit working on random
combinatorial libraries in favor of more targeted research. Robert
Goldman (senior director of biology) and David Gange (senior director
of chemistry) are working on three other anti-infective programs.
The company still has 33,000 square feet but is evaluating its sublease
options.
Incara Inc., 8 Cedar Brook Drive, Cedar Brook CorporateCenter, Cranbury 08512. Barbara Schilberg, executive vice president.609-655-6900; fax, 609-655-6930. Home page: https://www.incara.com.Top Of PageNJHA’s New BuildingRents in the Alexander Road corridor are rising so fastthat the New Jersey Hospital Association is pulling out of leasedspace and building on its own 25-acre property.V.J. Scozzari & Sons Inc. is building the 12,400 square-foot facility,on the site of a residence that NJHA had owned. About 45 people whowork in the for-profit areas of the NJHA — the group purchasingdepartment, the insurance division, and a data analysis operation– will move out of rented quarters at University Square. The newbuilding, east of the main campus, will be connected by a footpath.”Since we own this property, we thought it would be more efficientto have our own building,” says Ron Czajkowski, vice president,”and we had the money to do it.”The statewide hospital association was the first to develop propertyon Alexander Road. It moved into the first building at 760 in 1974,a decade before the Carnegie Center was built. The trade associationrepresents hospitals and other healthcare providers. As the HealthResearch Educational Trust it provides research and continuing educationfor hospitals, other healthcare providers and the public. It alsohas a conference center.”The primary reason for us building our own was escalating rentalprices,” says Czajkowski. “We can build cheaper than we canrent.”Top Of PageExpansionsChurchill & Harriman Inc., 244 Wall Street, Princeton08540. Kenneth J. Peterson, president. 609-921-3551; fax, 609-921-1061.This information management recruiting and consulting service hasexpanded to an additional office at 266 Wall Street.Delsys Pharmaceutical Corporation, 5 Vaughn Drive,Suite 305, Princeton 08540. Martyn Greenacre, president and CEO. 609-720-0033;fax, 609-520-6692.The biotech company is moving out of its College Road laboratory,a sublet from Cytogen, and into a 14,000-foot lab at 11 Deer ParkDrive, Suite 206, Princeton Corporate Plaza. The privately-held firmdevelops automated drug manufacturing and delivery systems throughelectrostatic dry powder.FSM Group, 350 Applegarth Road, Cranbury 08512.Holly A. Falco, 609-395-9033; fax, 609-395-9532.The GPM Group, 2357 Route 33, Robbinsville 08691.Michael Grainger, owner. 609-259-7101; fax, 609-259-3124.Michael Grainger has bought a controlling interest in the FSM Group,office furniture and relocation consultants. Grainger’s firm, theGPM Group, was formerly known as Grainger Painting and Maintenance.FSM will continue as a separate operation at its current locationand will be managed by Holly A. Falco. “Single-source accountabilityfor the facilities management function is where the new directionis headed,” says Falco.Facility Service Management offers advisory services such as managingfurniture procurement and relocation master planning. Clients includeBenetton, American General Assurance Co., Princeton Credit Corporation,Journal of Commerce, Rhodia, Colgate-Palmolive Company, and Bell Atlantic.Opportunities for All, 3490 Route 1, Building 11,Princeton 08543. Vernon Long, executive director. 609-452-9753; fax,609-452-9519.Opportunities for All, a for-profit agency that places both the disabledand non-disabled in jobs, opened in 1,500 square feet two years agobut has 8,500 feet now.Top Of PageNew in TownThe Samson Group, 23 Jefferson Plaza, Princeton08540. Samir Sheth, president. 732-355-0010. 0013Samir Sheth moved his four-person software company to South Brunswickfrom Piscataway. It does back-end software for E-commerce and financeapplications, particularly for brokerage houses. Sheth is a nativeof Bombay and graduated from the College of Engineering at Pune in1985.Design Research LLC, 133 Franklin Corner Road,Lawrenceville 08648. 609-896-1108; fax, 609-896-3016.Rick Babick has opened a market research firm for the tabletop, giftwares,and collectibles industry.Plus: Progressive Living Unit Systems, 9-F PrincessRoad, Princeton 08648. Chris Beaupre, president. 609-895-8855; fax,609-895-0257.Earlier this year the administrative office for an organization providinggroup homes for patients with head trauma opened an office at PrincessRoad.Top Of PageLeaving TownMillennium Cell Co., 1 Industrial Way West, Eatontown07724. Steven Amendola, vice president, research. 732-542-4000; fax,732-542-4010.The chemical R&D firm founded in 1998 has relocated its corporateoffices and laboratories labs from Cedar Brook Corporate Center inCranbury to Eatontown. The new facility more than doubles the previousspace.A subsidiary of GP Strategies (NYSE), Millennium Cell has developeda safe generator for producing controlled amounts of hydrogen gasfrom water-based solutions (U.S. 1, October 28, 1998). The hydrogengas, rapidly formed on-demand by the generator, can either be convertedthrough fuel cells to produce electricity and pure water, or burneddirectly as a clean nonpolluting fuel in internal combustion engines.Scientists are currently retrofitting a Ford Explorer to run solelyon hydrogen gas, says Mike Binder, senior scientist.Top Of PageDeathsThomas P. Regan, 57, on July 26. He was general managerfor Dick Greenfield Dodge.Stephen Jablonski, 61, on July 28. He was a sales associatewith Weichert Realtors.Sallie Fell Griffin, 81, on July 29. She had been presidentof the Friends of Princeton Public Library and a 37-year volunteerfor the Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic.Cyril Anthony Kust, 68, on August 2. He had been leadresearcher at American Cyanamid.Robert Conley, 41, on August 4. An engineer, he had workedwith CUH2A.Previous StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
