Corrections or additions?
These articles by Peter J. Mladineo and Barbara Fox
were published in U.S. 1 Newspaper on April 8, 1998. All rights reserved.
Life in the Fast Lane
Here’s the latest spoke in the clinical research wheel
ringing the Route 1 corridor: Interactive Clinical Technologies Inc.
at 20 Nassau Street. This company isn’t your standard contract research
organization (CRO) per se, but it provides a product that CROs might
find valuable: a telephone-based clinical monitoring system.
This software manages how patients get enrolled and how drugs are
dispensed. “The software allows all of the sites worldwide to
call in and enter patients into trial and actually helps dispense
drug to sites,” says Scott C. McCarty, the executive vice president.
“We’re a niche service-provider within the CRO industry.”
The product works like a telephone banking system. Dial in, enter
a password, and the system starts asking questions (in up to 140 languages,
although most systems are designed in English). There are several
menu options, and each patient’s information is randomized and given
an system ID. Because most studies are double-blind, the system also
assigns drug cartons. Once the interaction takes place, verification
is faxed to the monitor’s site and information is into a report. “We
give them back all the data we’ve collected, in real time,” says
McCarty. “Basically we’re providing a project management tool.
It’s a software component, but the majority of what we do is a service.”
ICT also provides information to the drug sponsor. For some of its
larger clients, it builds a customized intranet and delivers the day’s
collected data to that system at night through a dedicated line. “That’s
the glitzy approach to it,” says McCarty. “It’s sort of a
cheaper version of Lotus Notes.”
The firm was started in July, 1996, by McCarty and Dan Scanlon, both
former employees of Corning Besselaar (now Covance) who designed a
voice response monitoring system for Genentech, the biotech firm in
San Francisco. McCarty, 32, has an undergraduate degree from the Philadelphia
College of Pharmacy (Class of 1989) and worked in Corning Besselaar’s
interactive voice response department before starting the company.
Scanlon, 36, worked in information systems for Corning Besselaar and
studied business information systems at Trenton State College.
Their technology is not unique — most of the larger CROs, like
Covance and Quintiles, provide their own versions. “We compete
with them directly,” says McCarty.
But ICT shares something else with other CROs in the Princeton area
— rapid, almost breakneck, growth. The firm started with two employees
and has since grown to 14 employees. McCarthy and Scanlon expect to
hire another 10 employees by year-end. “In projects alone and
revenues, from ’96 to ’97 we had 500 percent growth,” says McCarthy.
In just the first quarter of 1998, he adds, ICT equaled its 1997 sales
figures of $1 million.
Although ICT makes its home in an area considered to be a hotbed of
CROs and pharmaceuticals, it doesn’t have any clients in the area.
“I think we only have two east coast clients,” McCarty says.
“All our clients are on the West Coast or in Europe, but we’re
going to try to remedy that soon.”
McCarty predicts that ICT’s stay at 20 Nassau Street might not be
long. “We suspect we’ll be growing out of this building shortly,”
he says. The firm is eying Lambertville’s River Walk complex, which
expects to hit pound on a expansion of its own later this year.
— Peter J. Mladineo
Interactive Clinical Technologies Inc., 20 NassauStreet, suites 10 and 233, Princeton 08542. Daniel J. Scanlon, president.609-430-1011; fax, 609-430-1245.Top Of PageTwo New BuildingsMichael Graves, the renowned Princeton University architect,has broken ground on Miele Appliance’s United States headquarterson Route 1 and McCarter Theater announced it would build a secondtheater space.Whereas Miele expects to move from Somerset to occupy its showroomand training center by early next year, no date has been set for McCarter’snew 350-seat proscenium theater.Though Graves is also drawing the renovations for the Arts Councilof Princeton, the Miele headquarters will be finished first and willtherefore be the first Graves commercial structure in Princeton. Tosuggest the sleekness of Miele designs he has chosen bright yellow,cobalt blue, and terra cotta for the two-story building, fronted bya dozen slender columns in a two-story portico.Located on six acres at the corner of Route 1 and Independence Way,next to Novotel, the 31,400 square foot building will house showrooms,general and culinary training areas, product testing laboratories,and administrative offices. Durell Builders of 19 Vandeventer Avenuehas the construction contract with engineering by Cosentini Associatesand James Ruderman, both of New York.Miele is known for making vacuum cleaners, washing machines and dryers,dishwashers, ovens, and cooktops. Graves is a professor of architectureat Princeton University and has his office at Harrison and Nassaustreets.”We chose the Route 1 corridor for its strategic, accessible location,”says Nick Ord, head of U.S. operations for the 14,000-employee firmthat is based in Germany. “And Princeton, with its quiet sophisticationand rich heritage, is an ideal locale for Miele.”McCarter Theater will be joined by Princeton Universityin raising an undetermined sum of money for a proscenium theater onthe south side of the McCarter property (on the hill sloping downto WaWa). Intended to showcase student productions from the university’stheater and dance programs as well as McCarter’s new play series,it will include two rehearsal halls, offices, lobby, and productionsupport areas.Most theaters of McCarter’s stature have smaller theaters known as”second stages.” Emily Mann, McCarter’s artistic director,has been managing to present new plays by artificially sectioningoff a space of the 1,400-seat theater, but that was a stop-gap measureat best. The new space will also solve the kinds of scheduling problemsthat left the university’s dance program presenting a major eventat Richardson Auditorium on the same night that McCarter presenteda major dance company. Now the student dancers and actors will havetheir choice of dates.Top Of PageCars, Not VansCarpooling is up while ridership on van services isdeclining, says the Greater Mercer Transportation Management Association.A recent survey of registrants in the TMA’s rideshare matching databasesuggests a 10 percent increase (33 to 43 percent) in ridership sinceJanuary, 1997. The report adds that the rideshare matching serviceseliminate 365,000 vehicle trips per year in Mercer County. Assumingthat each vehicle averages a daily round-trip of 20 miles, 7.3 millionvehicle miles are saved per year.”Many people assumed that when the mandatory trip reduction programwas repealed, carpools would disappear, but that clearly hasn’t happened,”says Sandra Brillhart, executive director of the Greater Mercer TMA.Moreover, according to the survey, one in five Mercer County employersnow encourage ridesharing.Things are not so scenic on the vanpooling front. With sagging ridership,the TMA has been struggling to encourage people to take advantageof its Wheels van service. It recently expanded the 977 Wheels serviceto include residential areas south of New Village Road to Old TrentonRoad and Southfield and Rabbit Hill roads.The TMA has also added earlier pick-up times for its 600 bus line,that serves hotels on Route 1. Now the bus leaves Trenton at 5:30a.m. instead of 6 a.m. For information and schedules call 609-452-1491.Or visit www.gmtma.org.Top Of PageNetwork BuildingNo matter how fast your data network, it’s never fastenough. But when new packet-switched networks replace old circuit-switchednetworks, speed will increase and costs will drop. “Businessescould go hog wild,” says the April 7 special report on telecommunicationsin Business Week, which quotes Tom Evslin, the former AT&T executivewho founded ITXC Corp.ITXC, located at the Hovnanian center in North Brunswick, has itsown news. It has taken one more step to establish protocols on thenew packet-switched IP (Internet protocol) networks. ITXC will sharetraffic between its own network (WWeXchange Service) and Delta Three’sIP telephony network, the largest in the world. WWeXchange Service– ITXC’s complete data and voice communication alternative toAT&T’s current circuit-switched lines — is expected to begin revenueservice this month.Established last year with seed funding from AT&T and VocalTec, ITXCwholesales such infrastructure services as billing, settlement, switching,high-quality transport, and gateway management (U.S.1, September 17,1997).ITXC is working toward a single, seamless IP network with more advancedsecurity that will support different quality of service level guarantees.Instead of taking one call and then another call on multiple lines,a business on this network could receive its communications throughone always-open line. This “persistent connection” would allowfirms to use their bandwidth dynamically and take advantage of allsorts of yet to be invented applications.”This agreement is the first to allow customers of one Voice Overthe Internet Provider to take advantage of services provided by otherVOIP providers,” says Mary Evslin, marketing vice president ofITXC.”It is a milestone in the industry when two major providers canagree that inter-operability is in the best interest of everybody’scustomers,” says Jeff Pulver, president of Pulver.com.Top Of PageExpansionsSingapore Airlines, 20 Wall Street, Princeton 08540.Jerry Dwyer, district manager. 609-452-8877; fax, 609-452-7978.In mid-April the airline will expand its corporate sales office witha move from Princeton Office Gallery at 5 Independence Way to ResearchPark. Victoria Smith, sales assistant, says the office is adding oneor two additional employees.Top Of PageInsurance NewsPrinceton Insurance Affiliates, 742 Alexander Road,Princeton. Charles Yeleck, vice president. 609-452-7220; fax, 609-452-8566.Princeton Insurance Affiliates merged with Agency One Insurance GroupLLC in March and moved to its new parent company’s headquarters at672 Route 202/206 in Bridgewater. The new address is Box 6788, Bridgewater08807-0788. Phone and fax are 908-526-0001 and 908-722-7700.Smith Benefit Services, 3120 Princeton Pike, Box6509, Lawrenceville 08648-0509. Robert M. Neumann, president. 609-895-1616;fax, 609-895-1511.Donald S. Smith Associates was sold to the Copeland Companies, theEast Brunswick-based retirement planner, last year. Then, it spunoff its employee benefits division, based at 3120 Princeton Pike andchanged the name. Smith Benefit Services is now owned by the employees,says Bill Bloor, assistant vice president.Last fall Donald S. Smith sold off Smith Insurance Services, its 18-employeeproperty and casualty division based also at 3120 Princeton Pike,to Rue Insurance, which absorbed its staff at 3812 Quakerbridge Road.Top Of PageDeathsStephen C. Johnes, on March 29. He was manager of theMerrill Lynch Growth Fund. A memorial service will be Saturday, April18, at 11 a.m. at Princeton Theological Seminary’s Miller Chapel.Neal S. Coleman, 46, on March 30. He worked at U.S. Sprint’sdistribution center in Dayton.John M. Leahy, 73, on April 1. He had been news editorof the Monitor, the newspaper of the Trenton Diocese.Jennie Driver Hundley, 68, on April 2. She had been asecretary at Ditmars & Carmichael Engineering Company.F. Glenn Breen, 85, on April 2. He had been presidentand board chairman of Trenton Savings Bank.John T. Conte III, 37, on April 2. He had been a mailcarrier with the U.S. Postal Service.nCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
