Corrections or additions?
These articles by Barbara Fox were prepared for the April 14, 2004
issue of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
Life in the Fast Lane
As a result of a very big contract with CIGNA HealthCare for
custom-designed employee health care plans, CareGain will be expanding
from 4,000 square feet at Center Point Industrial Park. No location
has been announced, but the requirement is for 10,000 to 15,000 square
feet.
Two years ago CareGain, a pioneer in the area of healthcare savings
accounts, had just four employees (U.S. 1, February 7, 2002). Now the
company has 30 employees and expects to hire 75 or 100 people,
including Java programmers and customer service people with a
technical background.
CareGain is building its growth on employer desire to drive down
health care costs and on last December’s legislation creating health
care savings accounts (HSAs) for Medicare.
CareGain’s products will help enable CIGNA to implement a new suite of
products bearing the slogan “CIGNATURE – Your plan. Your choice.” In
this suite will be consumer-driven health plan options and consumer
outreach and education programs that can help manage costs and improve
health care outcomes.
The suite will be available for plans that start after January 1,
2005. “It will free employers from traditional industry approaches
that tie plan features like medical management or network size to
specific products,” says a press release. “Instead, employers can now
‘mix and match’ features to build a custom plan aligned with their
budget and employee preferences.
CareGain’s Defined-Care platform can customize consumer-directed
health plans. Employers can incent employees to make certain decisions
that may increase the value of their health care benefits, either
through an HRA or an HSA. An HRA is a health care reimbursement
arrangement provided by the employer that allows monies unused in one
year to be rolled over into the employee’s account for the next year.
The HSA is the health care saving account provided for by December’s
Medicare legislation. Unlike the HRA, employees in an HSA can
contribute to the account along with the employer and their monies are
tax deferred.
CIGNA’s CIGNATURE suite allows employers to select their own options
in five areas: clinical programs, benefit plan design, network size,
use of primary care physician, and funding type.
“Consumer-directed healthcare is not a single product,” says Amit K.
Gupta, MD, president & COO of CareGain. “It is an evolving strategy.
CIGNA’s decision to advance this strategy is a reflection of the
company’s commitment to contain employer costs and engage consumers
from multiple directions – from introducing infrastructure and
operational efficiencies to providing plans that focus on population
health management and behavior modification through incentive-based
plan designs.”
“The marketplace is ready for a new way of thinking about and building
benefits plans,” says John Coyle, health care senior vice president at
CIGNA. “CIGNATURE plans eclipse products that restrict choice based on
network and benefits, and address the market dynamics that employers
face today.
“Employers want to control plan costs without compromising care and
quality. And they recognize that merely having employees pay an
ever-larger portion of the health care bill is a short-term, rather
than a sustainable, solution to managing costs,” says Coyle. “At the
same time, they want to offer greater consumer choice, help employees
to become more informed about health care, and improve employee
understanding of how their choices impact costs. Our new portfolio
gives them the means to achieve all these objectives.”
– Barbara Fox
CareGain Inc., 3A South Middlesex Avenue, Center PointIndustrial Park, Monroe Township 08831. David J. Lenihan, chairman andCEO. 609-409-3666; fax, 609-409-3671. Home page: www.caregain.comTop Of PageNew in Town: Crick CruikshankFour weeks ago Jamison Eaton & Wood expanded from Chatham and openedan office at the corner of Alexander Road and Vaughn Drive, MetroOffice Center III. Ernest “Crick” Cruikshank, senior vice presidentand chief investment officer, is in charge. Founded in 1972, JamisonEaton & Wood is an independent investment management firm withinstitutional and individual clients.Right now just three people occupy 2,400 square feet, but Cruikshankplans to hire eight people by the end of the year – experiencedportfolio managers and portfolio administrators. Realtor GerardFennelly is his neighbor and, says Cruikshank, “Jerry wasextraordinarily helpful in helping us finding our space.” PatrickLuzzi of Advance Realty Group, representing the landlord, says thatthe building is now 100 percent leased.Cruikshank has been with this firm since 1988. A native of Chatham, hegraduated from Princeton University in 1966 and then began working onWall Street. In 1976 he joined Salomon Brothers, first in Atlanta andthen in Manhattan, where he was in charge of the national hiring andtraining programs. Then he moved to the municipal group working withhedge funds, mutual funds, insurance companies and bank portfolios. AHopewell resident since 1984, Cruikshank continues his undergraduateinterest, rowing, and owns a single scull. He has a daughter who headsmarketing for Valentino in Manhattan; a son who is working in realestate in Georgia, and two children in college, one getting an MBA atBoston College and the other a senior at Brown.Cruikshank has recruited Edward “Ted” Bromley Jr. to join him. A 1958graduate of Princeton University with an MBA from Harvard, Bromley hadmost recently been senior vice president at United States TrustCompany. He had also been a partner at Delafield, Harvey Tabell(bought by U.S. Trust in 1992), and had worked at Stein Roe & Farnhamand Butcher and Sherrerd.JE&W seeks individual as well as institutional clients, assuming theindividuals have a portfolio in excess than $1 million. “We arecommitted to a high level of personal service,” says Cruikshank. Asinstitutions get larger, through mergers, the infrastructure cansometimes get in the way. In contrast a small institution, he says,has the advantage of being able to give each client personal contactwith a senior investment manager. “We have been focused in northernNew Jersey,” Cruikshank says, “but we have clients scatteredthroughout the south.”Cruikshank’s particular responsibilities at JE&W include fixed incomestrategy and tactics. “When I joined JE&W it was an opportunity for meto step in and run the fixed income business for them,” he says. Hemanages the largest pools of fixed income money for both taxable andtax-exempt clients. “Part of our business is acting as a soleinvestment advisor to a large southeast public pension fund, a $15billion pool of funds. For a small investment manager we do think wehave a particular capability within the bond arena.””Whatever the asset class, you have to have discipline and stick toyour principles,” he advises. “It’s a lot of hard work. You have toprocess a lot of information and formulate it into a reasonable senseof assumptions and scenarios.”As an art and French major in the European civilization program atPrinceton, Cruikshank defends the liberal arts degree: “You have toprocess a lot of information and to develop critical thinking, and anyundergraduate degree should develop those skills.”Jamison Eaton & Wood Inc., 821 Alexander Road, Suite 120,Princeton 08540. 609-945-1400; fax, 609-945-1410. Home page:www.jamisonfirst.comTop Of PageSecond Spinoff for MedarexMedarex is spinning off its second company, Celldex Therapeutics Inc.Celldex filed on Friday, April 9, for an initial public offering of upto $50 million in common stock. The first spinoff for Medarex wasGenmab, founded in 1999. Medarex will own about three-fourths ofCelldex’s outstanding common stock.No information is available about the number or the price of theshares, and no date for the offering has been set, but the $50 millionwould go for clinical trials and commercialization of the company’sproduct candidates and to expand the R&D programs. Monies will also beused to pay whatever license fees are owed to Medarex, to acquire orinvest in businesses, products or technologies, or to fund workingcapital. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC will be the underwriter, and ifand when the IPO goes through, stock would trade on Nasdaq as CDEX.Don Drakeman founded the Medarex at Dartmouth in 1987 and moved it to20 Nassau Street in 1989. The firm went public in 1991 and bought agenetically perfected mouse in 1997. Now the UltiMAb Human AntibodyDevelopment System, develops monoclonal antibody-based therapeuticsfor cancer, inflammation, autoimmune, and infectious diseases. Theheadquarters is at Princeton Gateway at 707 State Road, and it has amulti-product Phase III manufacturing laboratory in Annandale. Ittrades on Nasdaq as MEDX.With Lisa Drakeman as CEO, Genmab is expanding at its North AmericanHeadquarters at 457 North Harrison Street and trades on the Copenhagenstock exchange as GEN. It works to create and develop human antibodiesfor the treatment of life threatening and debilitating diseases(www.genmab.com).Celldex is a development-stage biotechnology company that focuses onR&D and commercialization of therapeutic vaccines and other productsthat can either enhance or suppress the human immune system. In itsinitial stages, it had been known as Keycell Technologies.Medarex, 707 State Road, Princeton 08540. Donald L.Drakeman, president and CEO. 609-430-2880; fax, 609-430-2850. Homepage: www.medarex.comTop Of PageNyce Case UpdateA development in the Jonathan Nyce case: Stark & Stark attorneySanford Durst is representing the parents of Michelle Nyce in acustody battle over the three children. Nyce, the founder and formerCEO of Epigenesis at Cedar Brook Corporate Center, is accused ofmurdering his wife, Michelle, on January 16.The case will be heard in Family Court by Judge Jane Grall, butnothing has been scheduled, says Durst. “My hope is that the custodymatters will be settled as expeditiously as possible, but it will taketime to be sure that we are serving the best interests of the threeminor children,” says Durst.Other potential legal actions include the possibility of anadministrator being appointed for Michelle Nyce’s estate. The estatecould also pursue a wrongful death suit.”Apart from the legal issues involved it is a difficult situation. Allcustody cases are emotional for the parties going through it. Custodyissues are the most difficult part of a family law attorney’s job,”says Durst. “Fortunately I have not had a case where the underlyingallegations have been similar.”Other Stark & Stark attorneys, Paul Norris and Elizabeth Kreger, arerepresenting the Michelle Nyce’s parents in their request to freezeJonathan Nyce’s assets. A hearing on whether to unfreeze the assets soNyce can make bail is scheduled for Thursday, April 29, in the courtof Judge Neil Shuster.Teodoro Rivera, Michelle Nyce’s father, has moved from the Philippinesto Hopewell Borough and has found a job, Durst says. The Nycechildren, ages 12, 10 and 5, are living with Jonathan Nyce’s brotherand sister-in-law, Michael and Margaret Nyce, in Eagleton,Pennsylvania. Jonathan Nyce is being held at the Mercer CountyCorrection Center on $2 million bail; he is being represented by RobinLord and Maria Noto.Top Of PageBaker ExpandsHaving purchased the former Chicopee building in Dayton, BakerResidential expanded from its former Central Jersey headquarters at 7Centre Drive in Monroe to 3,000 square feet in a property occupied byMedicia Corp. on Route 130. The move took place at the end of March,and phone and fax are new.The Baker Companies are based in Pleasantville, New York, and alsohave offices in Morris Plains and Danbury, Connecticut. Theresidential division has finished developing the Walker Gordon Farm inPlainsboro and its current projects include three residential projectswith water views: Lighthouse Bay, single family homes and townhousesin South Amboy, and townhouse projects – Boatworks in Bayonne andRiverside in Secaucus.The Medicia/Baker site had been the home of Chicopee, formerly thenon-woven fiber division of Johnson & Johnson. Chicopee was bought andits operations were moved out of state. Eight years ago the buildingand 71 acres were up for sale for $8.2 million, but in 1997 Mediciasigned a 15-year, $20 million lease and expanded from Belle Mead.With 400 employees, the Medicia Corporation still occupies the greaterpart of the 250,000 square foot building. Medicia is a custommanufacturer of fine cosmetics, OTC preparations, and private labelproducts, and it also does contract packaging.Baker Residential, 2351 Route 130, Suite 4, Box 1013,Dayton 08810. Ian Jones, vice president. 732-438-1677; fax,732-438-1678. Home page: www.thebakercompanies.comMedicia Corp., 2351 Route 130, Box 1015, Dayton08810-1015. Frederick W. Von Rein, president. 732-438-3200; fax,732-438-1536. Home page: www.medicia.comTop Of PageFleet SoldOn April 1 FleetBoston Financial Corp. was sold for $47 billion toBank of America Corp., based in Charlotte, North Carolina. It is nowthe nation’s third largest bank, with about 35 million consumer andsmall business customers, about 5,700 branches from coast to coast and16,500 ATMs. Only Citigroup and the planned merger of Bank One andJ.P. Morgan Chase are larger.Because Bank of America has few locations in Central Jersey, areaFleet employees may not be very affected by staff cuts. Layoffs areexpected to run as high as 13,000, or about seven percent of 181,000,the combined headcount of the two banks. Fleet customers have receivednotices that they will be able to use Bank of America ATM machineswithout charge.Kenneth D. Lewis, chief executive of Bank of America, will hold thesame position at the combined bank, which retains that name.FleetBoston CEO Chad Gifford becomes chairman of the new bank.Fleet Bank New Jersey (FBF), 301 Carnegie Center, CN53166, Princeton 08543. Doug Kennedy, chairman of Fleet New Jersey.609-987-3672. Home page: www.fleet.comTop Of PageStock NewsChiral Quest, the life sciences chemistry company, has raised $7.2million in a private placement organized by ThinkEquity Partners,Paramount Capital, and Casimir Capital. CEO Alan D. Roth reports thatthe offering size was increased from what had been planned “due tosubstantial investor interest.” Investors bought about 4.28 millionshares of commons stock at $1.50.Chiral Quest provides chiral products, technology, and services to thepharmaceutical and fine chemical industries. It also “developschemical catalysts and other products used in the synthesis of desiredisomers of chiral molecules,” according to a press release.Chiral molecules have mirror image pairs, called isomers. Theseisomers may have the same boiling points, smoothness, and solventproperties, but they may differ in another important way. Eliminateone of the isomers, and the single isomer version of the drug doesmore with less. It is more powerful and more cost effective. Whendelivered, it is safer, because it carries less excess baggage.Chiral Quest was a spin off from Penn State in 2000, was restructuredlast year, and launched as a listed company in February 2003 (U.S. 1,June 5, 2003). Other officers include Ronald E. Brandt, vice presidentof business development, and Xumu Zhang, chief technology officer.K. Barry Sharpless, a world authority in chiral chemistry, chairs thescientific advisory board, which also includes James P. Collman ofStanford University. The company’s board includes Vincent M. Aita ofKilkenny Capital Management, Stephen Roth (no relation to the CEO AlanRoth), a former Johns Hopkins biology professor who co-founded NeoseTechnologies in 1990; Kenneth W. Brimmer, board chairman of Active IQTechnologies, Inc. and former executive officer of Rainforest Cafe;and three people from Paramount Capital – Stephen C. Rocamboli, DavidM. Tanen, and Michael Weiser.Chiral Quest Inc. (CQST), 7 Deer Park Drive, PrincetonCorporate Plaza, Suite E-2, Monmouth Junction 08852. Alan D. Roth,CEO. 732-274-0399; fax, 732-274-0402. Home page: www.chiralquest.comTop Of PageDeathNeil Upmeyer, 57, on April 9. A former vice president of the GallupOrganization, he was vice president for the Center for Analysis ofPublic Issues.Next StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
