Condom Wars: A.V.K. Reddy and Pleasure Plus
Corrections or additions?
These articles by Barbara Fox and Melinda Sherwood were published in U.S. 1 Newspaper on April 14, 1999. All rights
reserved
Merrill Lynch Seals the Deal
After all the wrangling over sewers, Merrill Lynch
closed last Friday, April 9, on the 450-acre land purchase on the
east side of Scotch Road in Hopewell Township. Price: $438 million
or about $84,000 per acre.
The big brokerage company will start by building six office buildings
and two cafeteria buildings for a total of 1 million square feet,
but that is only a start. In the next 20 years Merrill Lynch plans
to build a regional center that could rival Princeton Forrestal Village
in size and scope. In addition to 3.5 million feet of office space
it could have one or two retail villages, a hotel, a conference center,
and even space for light industry.
For now, Merrill Lynch is eager to get back on schedule; because community
and environmental activists objected to sewer proposals, the closing
was delayed for two months. By October, 2000, the firm hopes to relocate
the first 400 programmers and system analysts from the Forrestal Center
and elsewhere into the new facility. Eventually it will house 5,000
employees, including 1,500 new jobs plus workers from such locations
as Fort Washington and Horsham in Pennsylvania.
Merrill Lynch had hired a lobbying organization, the GluckShaw group,
to help get environmental permits for sewer service. It is relying
on a contingency agreement to hook into a pipeline from the Ewing
Lawrence Sewerage Authority and has abandoned an earlier plan, to
hook into the Trenton Sewerage Authority. Merrill Lynch has promised
to expand Scotch Road to four lanes, and the state will make improvements
to the interchanges from I-95.
Bristol-Myers Squibb owned the Scotch Road tracts but decided to buy
the 433-acre Mobil site and expand there instead. Merrill Lynch’s
goal is to buy the rest of the land, 450 acres on the west side of
Scotch Road. When finished, the park is expected to generate from
$6.4 to $7 million in property taxes and to yield at least $1 million
over and above any costs to the township for municipal services and
new residents’ education costs. At its completion it would have an
assessed value of from $370 to $400 million.
Some township activists resisted the sale and were pushing for a “slow-growth”
strategy. Nevertheless, the project received unusually strong support
from the Mercer County Chamber of Commerce. “We wanted to show
the value to the whole region,” says Bill Mate, chamber director,
“that if Merrill Lynch went across the border to Newtown, they
would still have the traffic but not the ratables.”
Top Of PageCondom Wars: A.V.K. Reddy and Pleasure Plus
A.V.K. Reddy’s condom company went out of business,
but he is still pursuing his dream of the perfect prophylactic. Reddy
is the physician who invented a female condom and the Pleasure Plus
male condom (U.S. 1, July 22, 1992 and May 19, 1993). As reported
in the April 11 style section of the New York Times in an article
entitled “The `Leonardo’ of Condoms,” Reddy is fighting in
a federal court in Newark to preserve another investment to manufacture
his latest invention, the Inspiral.
Reddy’s $7 million factory in India has reportedly made 590,000 condoms
for distribution to Eckerd and Genovese drugstore chains, but Illinois-based
Portfolio Technologies, which bought the rights to Pleasure Plus,
is trying to halt sales of the Inspiral on the grounds that it is
basically the same as Pleasure Plus.
Reddy had tried to market the Reality female bikini condom, a pair
of latex panties with a condom built into the crotch. He had spent
more than $12 million on machinery, condom molds, research, and setting
up a manufacturing plant in India when the Food and Drug Administration
approved a Wisconsin company’s female condom first.
Though Reddy does distribute the female condoms in developing countries,
he abandoned a 20,000 square-foot site at an Exit 8A corporate site
and moved to 5,000 square feet at Windsor Industrial Park. The 24
employees Reddy had hired to test, manufacture, and market the condoms
were reduced to five.
But Reddy’s male Pleasure Plus condom, conceived in 1991, was pushing
to the top of America’s condom popularity charts. It had a loose pouch
at the underside of the tip of the shaft. Adding material goes against
the grain of the condom industry wisdom that thin is always better,
but the extra material provides extra friction that stimulates both
males and females.
“I thought the friction would create a masturbatory sensation,”
Reddy said in 1994. “Now we have the best condom available in
the world.” But manufacturing difficulties forced Reddy Laboratories
International to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy with estimated liabilities
of $1.25 million.
Now the lawyers are fighting it out in U.S. District Court in Newark.
The Pleasure Plus people say theirs is just like the Inspiral because
they both have a bulge that enhances the sensation. The Inspiral lawyers
say they have a new design that has the effect of the shock absorber
of an automobile.
As for public opinion — in a test for Cosmopolitan magazine, the
Inspiral was the only condom to get a perfect 10 of 10 from testers
both male and female.
Business Management International Inc., 101 InterchangePlaza, Suite 105, Cranbury 08512. Wendy Gold, owner. 609-655-3998;fax, 609-655-5882. Home page: https://www.bmiusa.com.The Manhattan-based firm added a six-person office at Exit 8A lastyear. It does computer consulting and software solutions.Kelly Waldron Co., 8 Commerce Way, Suite 1, GatewayI-95 Business Park, Hamilton 08691. Natalie Kitchell, executive director,sales/operations. 609-815-2000; fax, 609-815-2010.The database marketing firm, a fully-owned subsidiary of McKessonCorp., has moved into 15,000 square feet at Gateway Business Park.It has 80 employees at a technical support facility in Horsham, Pennsylvania,and 50 remain in the East Brunswick headquarters for sales and marketingsupport. This office is for fulfillment and distribution services.Windsor Realty represented the tenant; the building is owned by DanielPopkin.Natalie Kitchell, executive director of this sales and operationsoffice, went to College of New Jersey and has had 15 years experiencein database marketing in the pharmaceutical industry, previously forWalsh America, where she met the founders of this firm.Her division responds to consumers and physicians by replying to brochurerequests, coupons, and 800-number calls. Clients include the ad agenciesof such pharmaceutical firms as Pfizer, Wyeth Ayerst, Squibb, andParke-Davis.”This office serves both Horsham and East Brunswick,” saysKitchell, who spends much of her time in Manhattan. “Having HamiltonStation here on the New Jersey Transit line is going to help us.Founded in 1992, the firm was sold to McKesson last December. The100-year-old Mckesson firm is based in San Francisco and is a majordrug distributor.Top Of PageExpansionsApplied Engineering and Technology, 298 Wall Street,Princeton 08540. Harald Greve, president. 609-921-8999; fax, 609-921-1803.Home page: https://www.aetpc.com.Applied Engineering and Technology, a structural engineering firm,has moved from its office at 174 Wall Street to a larger space at298 Wall Street. The firm’s seven-person team of engineers and consultants,lead by President Harald Greve, is working on projects with the PortAuthority, Rutgers University and Princeton University, among others.The firm has also been contracted in the reparation of disaster sites.AES Accountants Executive Search, 136 Main Street,Forrestal Village, Princeton 08540. Gary Spinner, manager. 609-419-1750;fax, 609-987-0681. Home page: https://www.aocnet.com.Accountants Executive Search, a division of Accountants on Call, willbe moving out of its office at 136 Main Street in Forrestal Villageto a larger space at 125 Main Street. Phone number and fax numberswill remain the same. One of the leading staffing services, AES specializesin placing accounting and finance personnel on a temporary and permanentbasis.With the addition of two new employees, the company now has a 14 personstaff. Gary Spinner, manager of the permanent division, sees the newoffice accommodating considerable growth in the next few years. “Ourmarket is only going to go up,” he says, and adds that they haveonly recently started to tap into the south and central Jersey markets.Hill Environmental Group, 19 Brookside Avenue,Pennington 08534. Jody M. Hill, president. 609-730-1205; fax, 609-730-1222.This eight year old firm has expanded, adding an office at the StraubeCenter. A full-service environmental and engineering firm, it has10 employees and does subsurface investigation and remediation ofsoils and groundwater.Raymond Karsan Associates, 388 Wall Street, Princeton08540. Kevin Kruse, principal. 609-252-0999; fax, 609-252-9733. Homepage: https://www.raykarsan.com.The information technology firm now has two locations, the one atResearch park and a new one at 3131 Princeton Pike, Building 2, Suite200, Lawrenceville 08648, 609-912-0606; fax, 609-912-0607.Top Of PageCrosstown MovesKeystone Group International, 652 Whitehead Road,Lawrenceville 08648. Jacqueline Yu, owner. 609-586-2100; fax, 609-989-8005.Last month, Keystone Group International, an importer of textilesfrom Canada, moved from 3535 Quakerbridge Road to their new of officeat 652 Whitehead Road in Lawrenceville. The phone number remains thesame, but there is a new fax number: 609-989-8005. Jacqueline Yu,owner, started the company in New York ten years ago.Professional Event Planners, 10 Pleasant Hill Road,Cranbury 08512. Maureen Baran Barlow, event director. 609-860-9800;fax, 609-860-9833. Home page: https://www.pepevents.com.Barlow has moved her corporate event planning firm from Route 130.She does wedding and corporate team building events, support staff,and themed events.Top Of PageDeathsByron R. Kelley, 81, on April 9 from a fall from a mountainin Italy. He was former executive director of the New Jersey Councilon the Arts. A memorial service will be held on Thursday, April 15,at 2 p.m. at Central Moravian Church in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.Robert W. Blessing, 64, on April 10. He had been businessadministrator and assistant superintendent at North Brunswick Schools.Donald F. Montauti, 58, on April 10. He taught Italian in theTrenton Schools and at Mercer County Community College.Top Of PageLegal RulingSentenced and fined on April 9, Alan B. Shalleck, 60, for theftby failing to make required disposition of property, three years probation,a $15,000 fine, and 300 hours of community service. The Harvard-educatedventure capitalist was charged with using Hopewell Valley LacrosseLeague monies for personal use.B>nNext StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
