Corrections or additions?
These articles by Barbara Fox were prepared for the January 17,
2001 edition of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
Web-based Trials By ClinPhone
Using telephone and Internet technology to conduct
clinical
trials has helped ClinPhone, the pharmaceutical services firm, to
prosper. Its headquarters office in the United States has expanded
from 2,100 feet at Princeton Commerce Center on Emmons Drive to 6,200
square feet at 1009 Lenox Drive. It also opened a Chicago office and
will expand to the West Coast in the next few months.
“We tripled our staff over the last year, with 25 altogether,
and we expect to almost double again,” says Howard Goldberg, vice
president. He has 16 people in Princeton, and will add six or seven
in the project management and administrative capacities and business
development in the near future. Nearly 150 people work in the United
Kingdom for the parent company, Clinphone Group Ltd., which also has
another subsidiary, MarketPhone.
ClinPhone offers electronic trial management services to support
pharmaceutical
and biotechnology companies during clinical research. It takes data
directly from doctors and patients and manages data electronically
to cut down on a tremendous volume of paperwork. It also does more
traditional services such as supporting randomization and clinical
supply inventory management.
“We believe we are the leader in electronic trial management,”
says Goldberg, “and have done close to 500 studies, including
many large trials. We work with almost all the major pharmaceutical
and biotechnology companies in 70 different countries and 35 different
languages.”
Goldberg went to the State University of New York at Stony Brook,
Class of 1977, has his PharmD from the University of the Pacific,
and spent four years at Covance (U.S, June 23, 1999).
ClinPhone uses a hybrid data capture instrument that works on or
offline
and can be synchronized with the web at a later time. “With our
system you do not have to be logged onto the web. The form resides
on a local PC and synchronizes like a palm pilot.” For this
technology,
it partners with CB Technologies, based in Westchester, Pennsylvania.
Last June ClinPhone launched its version of CB’s MetaTrial. “We
can capture information from a patient and synchronize that with our
case report form,” says Goldberg, “whereas plain vanilla
MetaTrial
does not go beyond the doctor’s desk.”
Only 10 to 15 percent of all clinical trial firms use telephone or
web-based services, by Goldberg’s count. “We have far more
experience
with the telephone-based services than anyone else, and we are the
only ones that have integrated the services. We have educated our
customers as to the value of these services and now we are seeing
it take off, which is why we have grown so much in the last year or
two.”
ClinPhone, 1009 Lenox Drive, Suite 107,Lawrenceville08648. Howard Goldberg, vice president. 609-620-7000; fax,609-620-0258.Home page: www.clinphone.com.Top Of PagePharma MovesCovance (CVD), 206 Carnegie Center, Princeton08540-6681.Chris Kuebler, chairman and CEO. 609-452-1408; fax, 609-452-9375.Home page: www.covance.com.Covance is selling its New Hampshire-based pharmaceutical packagingservices business to Fisher Scientific International.Newton Interactive, 2425 Pennington Road,Pennington08534. Debra Newton, president. 609-818-0025; fax, 609-818-0045.www.newtoninteractive.comFormerly known as Newton Resource Group, this company’s new name isNewton Interactive, to reflect its core focus — digital mediasolutions, specifically Internet-based technologies, for thehealthcareindustry. This year it was named as both an Inc 500 company and aForbes Fast 500.Top Of PageCaxton Expands To AlexanderThe Princeton office of Caxton Corporation, theinvestmentmanagement and trading firm, has just expanded from Enterprise Driveto Alexander Court, a two-story, 40-000 square foot building developedby Nexus Properties, close to Princeton Junction train station.”Wewill be a single tenant in the building,” says John Forbes, theCFO and the senior person in this office.”It will be very convenient for us because we often need to goto New York,” says Forbes (no relation to the magazine mogul).Doug Petrozzini of Grubb & Ellis in Edison represented Caxton, whichchose the single-building format, with its redundant systems, forsecurity and privacy “as well as for the fact that, in the bigcomplexes, they try to put in a clause that says they can moveyou,”says Forbes. “With our systems, we can’t move. We even have agenerator out in the back.”Forbes went to Middlebury College, Class of 1975, and has an MBA fromBabson College; he has been with Caxton for 11 years. Based inManhattan,Caxton does commodities and securities trading and financialmanagementservices for offshore institutions and individuals. While the tradingtakes place in New York — and proximity to the Princeton Junctiontrain station will be handy — the Princeton office does most ofthe administration. This office is at 76 employees and continuallyadding recruiting, accounting, operations, IT and systems people,says Forbes.Internal staff at Caxton planned the move, which involved settingup telecommunications lines between the two buildings for the previousmonth so the systems computers could move first.Sheila Nall, Kathy Chorni, and Brian Guz of KSS Architects onWitherspoonStreet designed the earthtone interiors — coppers, blues, greens,and natural cherry wood — and chose new wood furniture by Tuohy.American Seating furnished the cubicles. French limestone for thelobby and staircase will complete the building, but at the time ofthe move, the weekend of January 12 to 14, the limestone had yet toarrive and the limestone had not arrived. “They tell us they caninstall it over a weekend,” says Forbes. “We think Nexus andKSS Architects did a great job.”Caxton Corp., 731 Alexander Road, Princeton 08540.John Forbes, CFO. 609-419-1800.Top Of PageExpansionsCranel Inc., 101 Interchange Plaza, Suite 301,Cranbury 08512. Mike Trautman, vice president. 609-860-9910; fax,609-860-9909. Home page: www.cranel.com.The northeast regional sales office for an Ohio-based systemsintegrationand computer backup storage systems company has moved from VillageBoulevard in Forrestal Village to Exit 8A. It represents suchmanufacturersbrands as Storage Tech, ADIC, Hitachi Data Systems, Veritas Software,and Sun Microsystems.”As an integrator, we sell to Fortune 100 and 500 clients fordata backup and online storage,” says Mike Trautman. “Weassemblesolutions from multiple manufacturers and takes full responsibilityfor support and implementation of that solution. We sell, install,and service equipment.The son of a Baptist minister in Columbus, Ohio, Trautman went toan Ohio school, Cedarville College, graduating in 1984 and going towork for this company shortly thereafter. He and his wife have twoschool-aged children.Bala Consulting Engineers, 50 Millstone Road,WindsorCorporate Park, Building 300, Suite 100, Cranbury 08512. Gregory J.DeMarco PE, vice president. 609-490-8950; fax, 609-490-8955. Homepage: www.bala.com.The engineering design and consulting firm moved from 321 ClarksvilleRoad to Windsor Corporate Park and has a new phone and fax. It focuseson manufacturing/process facilities and R&D — HVAC, electrical,plumbing, fire protection, structural, process, procurement, andvalidation.Historic Building Architects LLC, 312 West StateStreet, Trenton 08618. Annabelle Radcliffe-Trenner, principal.609-393-3999;fax, 609-393-4333.The architectural firm has moved from a Princeton address with a boxnumber to downtown Trenton and has a new phone and fax. In additionto Trenner, Michael Calafati and Maribel G. Beas belong to this firm,which focuses on architectural preservation and materialsconservation.Gary Mertz Architect, Box 1016, Pennington 08534.609-737-7976; fax, 609-730-8296.The four-person architectural firm expanded from 65 South Main Streetto 750 square feet at a location in Lawrence Township and is usinga post office box address. “We have done a number of additionsand fitouts for Lakeview Child Centers (owned by Robert Wood JohnsonMedical Center) and have just gotten a contract for an adult day carecenter in Orange,” says Mertz.He is breaking ground on a 3,500 square-foot house on Delaware Avenuein Pennington and recently designed a 40,000 square foot buildingfor Joe Pintinalli in Lawrence. His work on Tom and Mary Evslin’shome on Library Place was featured in Better Homes & Gardens in April,1999.Transformation Systems/TRANsys, 731 Alexander Road,Princeton 08540. Krishna Swamy, president. 609-514-0049; fax,609-514-0305.Home page: www.transys.net.The Oracle-based computer consulting firm is expanding from 5,000square feet at Princeton Commerce Center to 6,100 square feet at 731Alexander Road. Tom Romano of Buschman & Company represented thelandlord,and Bill Barish of Commercial Property Network represented the tenant.The firm does client/server applications on Oracle platforms, in fiveUnited States locations, offshore operations in India.W.W. Grainger (GWW), South Middlesex Avenue,CenterPointat 8A, Cranbury 08512. Doug Scalice. 609-860-9090.The tool and equipment distributor is expanding in CenterPoint at8A by leasing 40,000 square feet at 17 Middlesex Avenue — separatefrom its 250,000 square foot warehouse. The warehouse was abuild-to-suitand sale transaction with Matrix Development Group. John Tesser ofColliers Houston represented Grainger, which is based in Skokie,Illinois,and is traded on the New York stock exchange.Patrick J. Connelly, who directs asset management for Matrix, saysthat his available portfolio at that park has only 86,000 square feetat one location. This is a zone distribution center for industrialand commercial equipment and supplies for the company based in Skokie,Illinois.Top Of PageCrosstown MovesCPASNET.COM, 3625 Quakerbridge Road, Hamilton08619-6308.Cornell Rudov, president. 609-890-0800. Home page: www.cpasnet.com.The marketing services firm moved to Quakerbridge Road. Its clientsinclude accounting and legal firms; it also creates interactiveprogramsto assist professionals in marketing. A Pittsburgh native, Rudovmajoredin political science at Grinnell College in Iowa, Rudov, and was mostrecently head of the marketing division at Druker, Rahl & Fein.Top Of PageName ChangesAMEC Inc., 3131 Princeton Pike, Building 5, Suite105, Lawrenceville 08648-2203. Larry Capelli, senior vice president.609-620-0101; fax, 609-620-0120. Home page: www.amec.com.Morse Diesel, a construction management firm, changed its name tothat of its parent company, based in the United Kingdom.Nextera Enterprises (Sibson & Company), 600AlexanderPark, Suite 208, Princeton 08540. Donald Gallo, principal.609-520-2700;fax, 609-520-0369. Home page: www.sibson.com.Sibson & Company expanded last summer from the Carnegie Center to24,000 square feet at Alexander Park, and now it is officiallychangingits name, to be known as Nextera Enterprises. In 1998 it was acquiredby Nextera, which also has Lexecon and Nextera Interactive as separatebusiness units.”Collaboration among these groups has led to a diverse team ofconsultants with services that are particularly attuned to these timesof great change,” says Janet Dow, market relations manager.”Weare approaching the marketplace as a unified company with more than600 consultants who have expertise in human capital and technologysolutions.”Top Of PageContracts AwardedSongbird Hearing Corporation, 5 Cedar Brook Drive,Cedar Brook Corporate Center, Cranbury 08512. Fred Fritz, presidentand CEO. 609-409-4500; fax, 609-409-4510. Home page:www.songbirdhearing.com.The Sarnoff Corporation spinoff has acquired $45 million in privatecapital to advertise its signature product, the world’s firstdisposablehearing aid and to distribute it to Canada, Europe, and Japan (U.S.1, May 17, 2000).iPhysicianNet, 103 Carnegie Center, Suite 115,Princeton 08540. Robert L. Maio, vice president, sales and service.609-275-8818; fax, 609-275-8819. Home page: www.iPhysicianNet.com.The web-based healthcare firm landed a multi-year contract to supplyvideoconferencing and E-detailing capabilities to primary carephysicianson behalf of representatives of Aventis Pharmaceuticals, the seventhbig pharmco to join this network. iPhysicianNet claims to have 8,000primary care physicians in its network, and its other clients includeAstraZeneca, Pharmacia, and Novartis (U.S. 1, November 1, 2000).Energy Photovoltaics, 276 Bakers Basin Road, Box7456, Princeton 08543. James F. Groelinger, CEO. 609-587-3000; fax,609-587-5355.The solar photovoltaic company received $14 million in equity fundingfrom a group that now has a controlling interest in the company andhas made a top management change. In the group are investors fromStamford, Connecticut (www.chienergy.com); Houston, Texas(www.ielectric.com),and Mannheim, Germany (www.mvv.de — this is a “sticky site from whichit is difficult to exit). The money will be used tocommercializethin-film PV module manufacturing processes, for marketing and salesactivities, and for R&D to help EPV be a world leader in thiscost-effectivetechnology. The new CEO is James F. Groelinger, former senior vicepresident at CHI Energy Inc.FrontLine Technologies Inc., 3131 Princeton Pike,Building 4, Suite 206, Lawrenceville 08648. Kris Subramaniam,principal.609-912-0004; fax, 609-912-0307.The 40-person IT consulting company designed and installed a missioncritical E-service system for the Philadelphia Corporation for Aging,a 400-person agency funded by the Pennsylvania Department of Aging.The Consumer and Provider System (CAPS) was a three-year job toredesignand automate the work of eight departments including provider billing,departmental workflow, and wait list management. The system also doesinternal and external statistical reports, says Peter Gust, vicepresidentof technology.PharmaSeq Inc., 11 Deer Park Drive, PrincetonCorporatePlaza, Suite 204, Monmouth Junction 08852. Wlodek Mandecki, presidentand CEO. 732-355-0100; fax, 732-355-0102. Home page:www.pharmaseq.comAfter a two-year collaboration with the Sarnoff Corporation, WlodekMandecki announced his firm has made its first fully functionallight-powerednanotransponder using a chip measuring six nanoliters, less than1/000 the size of a grain of rice.This DNA chip achieved a record of being the smallest, externallypowered, monolithic integrated circuit that can transmit its identitycode by radio frequency. It will help develop microchip systems forDNA assays and is suitable for high-throughput assays in biology,medicine, combinatorial chemistry, and drug discovery.Top Of PageDeathsJames Peter Geiss, 50, on December 19. A Chinese scholar,he was treasurer of Pro Re Nata Inc. on Murray Place and editor inchief of the PRN Interactive Profile.Cheng Liao, 27, on January 2. He was a doctoral candidatein computer science at Princeton University.Judith Ferrell Kunz, 53, on January 5. She had been vicepresident of human resources at Opinion Research Corp.Robert I. Hill, 82, on January 9. He had been a labassistantat Princeton University.Natalie A. Wurpel, 75, on January 10. She was anaccountingassistant at McGraw Hill and a receptionist for Dr. Brian Lavery.Anne Marie Callaghan Forker, 52, on January 10. She hadworked at Buschman Partners on Lenox Drive.Previous StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
