Host an Expo; Reel In Your Customers
Is There a Cure For Malpractice Mess?
Anti-Sprawl Equals Pro-Downtown
Deadline Nears For Tech Fund Transfers
Corrections or additions?
This article by Kathleen McGinn Spring & Bart Jackson was prepared for the June 4, 2003 edition of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
Chemists Meet For Science and Jobs
Wherever she goes,
Princeton chapter of the American Chemical Society (ACS), runs into
chemists. "Wine tastings, the theater, chemists are everywhere!"
she exclaims. "I used to joke to friends that I can’t get away
from chemists."
Finding a chemist-free space in Princeton will be especially challenging
starting on Sunday, June 8, at 5 p.m. when the Trenton ACS chapter,
with some help from the Princeton chapter and from the Princeton University
chemistry department, hosts ACS’s three-day Middle Atlantic Region
Meeting (MARM) at Princeton University. Registration, which includes
most events, is $126, but students, post doctoral candidates, teachers,
and unemployed chemists attend for as little as $10, and some sessions
are free to all comers. Visit chemistry.org/meetings/regional/calendar.html
for full details.
Case, who works in the Princeton area for a major consumer products
company, says it is not hard to figure out why chemists pop up at
social gatherings throughout central New Jersey. "Just think of
what we have here," she says. In addition to a plethora of pharmaceutical
operations, she points out, this area is home to Rutgers University,
Princeton University, and any number of biotechs and manufacturing
companies that require the expertise of chemists.
The Trenton and Princeton chapters have some 1,500 members, just about
evenly divided between the two. And the state has one more chapter,
in North Jersey. Active in ACS, Case says she has traveled to parts
of the country where one chapter serves three — or even five —
states. "We have more scientists than any other state," declares
Case. She says she got the statistic from a state website, perhaps
that of Governor McGreevey, and she is quite sure it is true, based,
at least in part, on her own experience.
There is something for every chemist at every career stage and in
every specialty at the MARM event, at which Nobel Laureate
G. MacDiarmid, co-developer of the field of conducting polymers,
gives the keynote. Major symposia center around the themes of pharmaceutical
and medicinal chemistry, chemical education from K-12 through college,
solid-state and materials science, including nanotechnology, and energy
concerns.
Other featured sessions include the role of chemistry in homeland
defense, education, and patent law — and the role of women in
chemistry. Also on the agenda, along with a number of social events,
are sessions on thermal analysis and the study of pharmaceutical materials.
Technical sessions address a number of specialties, including forensics,
biochemistry, organic chemistry, and biophysical chemistry.
In addition to the nuts of bolts of chemistry, the science, MARM devotes
substantial time to chemistry, the career. Here is where Case comes
in. She is helping to put together MARM’s career component. Among
the draws is a job fair and industry showcase. "In the current
economic situation," observes Case, "some companies may not
have open positions, but they may want to meet people who might work
for them in the future."
Workshops, many put together by ACS’s national office, complement
the job fair. Some are designed to help neophytes with basic job hunting
skills. In chemistry, says Case, a Ph.D. is often the entry level
requirement, and after spending so many years in academe, new chemistry
Ph.Ds may lack basic skills, including the art of putting together
a winning resume. While some workshops cater to those seeking a first
job, other sessions address the needs of chemists in transition, and
lay out the range of career possibilities — including some rarely-considered
alternative careers — open to chemists.
chairman for the Trenton section, is embarking on a career transition.
His experience is a good example of the not-commonly-known niches
available in the field. Formerly the director of U.S. regulatory affairs
for American Cyanamid, he did not make the move when the company was
acquired and its operations were moved to North Carolina. Instead,
he started his own company, Registrations by Galley (www.registrationsbygalley.com),
which has its offices at 14 Jill Drive in West Windsor.
Galley, who earned his Ph.D. at Syracuse University, has a specialty
in registering pesticides, and it turns out that doing so can be a
formidable undertaking.
"Eight hundred companies need to register federally and locally,"
says Galley. "They need to send information to the FDA, and then
register again in every state, or sometimes in each county, in which
their product is sold." Only 10 major companies handle the active
ingredients in a pesticide. Registering a new active ingredient, he
says, requires 90,000 pages of science, an undertaking that can easily
cost $100 million. And that, he adds, is before a pesticide using
that ingredient can be formulated or manufactured.
Why would any company want to register a new active ingredient that
badly? The reason, Galley explains, is that the FDA is constantly
evaluating pesticide safety, and on occasion pulls less-safe products.
The goal is to use as little pesticide as possible and to do as little
harm to surrounding life, soil, and water as possible. "At American
Cyanamid we developed a new herbicide," he gives as an example.
"One thimble full replaced two pounds. It was essentially non-toxic.
If you drank the whole thimble full it wouldn’t hurt you."
The pesticide industry generates sales of $35 billion a year globally.
The vast majority of companies in the industry do not seek to register
novel active ingredients, but rather formulate products using approved
active ingredients. After working for one of the biggest players,
Galley is focusing his new business on registering pesticides for
smaller companies, although he does have BASF, the company that acquired
American Cyanamid, as a client.
"When you go to a store to get something for the garden,"
he says, "you see active ingredients listed at a certain percentage.
The formulators mix it different ways to best get at the pest."
While sales of pesticides to consumers is a $2 billion industry, Galley
wryly observes that "everybody is anti-pesticide." Or at least
everybody is anti-pesticide "until ants show up in the doorway."
Galley tells a story about a former colleague whose attorney husband
was "very anti-pesticide" until he began to tame his backyard
"and promptly got a horrible case of poison ivy." After breaking
out in the miserable rash, the attorney implored his wife to bring
home an herbicide to wipe out the poison plants.
Helping companies to register such products is fascinating work for
a chemist, says Galley. It involves a great deal of biology in addition
to chemistry, and also calls for legal and regulatory knowledge and
a thorough understanding of FDA procedures.
Now Galley is adding another layer of expertise as he makes the shift
from corporate employee to entrepreneur. Busy getting his website
up and running, he says he is enjoying the challenge. With downsizing
— and resulting overwork and tension — still poisoning the
atmosphere at any number of large companies, his is a path other chemists
might consider following.
Top Of Page
Host an Expo; Reel In Your Customers
Within every two-year period, McCormick Place in Chicago,
the nation’s largest trade show facility, plays host to scores of
industry groups. The housewares show is its biggest event, and in
second place is the biennial industrial packaging show.
This information comes from
of the industrial packaging company, Hughes Enterprises, a 45-person
operation that has its offices at 2 Industrial Drive in Hamilton (609-586-7200,
At first blush it is surprising to learn that packaging is such a
huge industry. But, look around. Every pencil, Diet Sprite can, book,
legal pad, stapler, and keyboard on your desk had to have spent some
time traveling in close contact with many — probably thousands
— of its mates. No plastic cup makes the trip from factory to
distribution warehouse to shelf alone. Most often, pallets, containers,
heavy-duty tape, shrink wrap, bar codes — and sometimes plastic
peanuts or sheets of that cool, bubble-filled plastic sheeting —
are involved.
On Monday, June 9, at 9 a.m. Hughes kicks off a three-day Packaging
Equipment Expo at its offices. At the expo, the first installment
of what Magaziner hopes will become an annual event, manufacturers’
representatives showcase their wares. Included in the roster of participants
are 3M, Sealed Air, Storopack, Samuel Strapping Systems, Weber Marking,
and Progressive Handling.
"There’s going to be a conveyor belt," says Magaziner. "You
can watch the packages come down." Many packaging manufacturers,
he says, are loathe to ship samples of their wares to potential customers.
It is just not cost efficient. At the same time, companies, about
to commit to a substantial capital outlay, tend not to be satisfied
with a CD-ROM demonstration. Generally the only way customers can
see equipment in action is to fly to its manufacturer’s plant. But,
says the Hughes executive, the fact that he plans to attract at least
200 potential customers to his three-day expo has been enough to induce
many manufacturers to go to the expense of assembling and shipping
demonstration pieces of equipment.
But, wait, what’s in this for Hughes? Why’s to keep expo attendees
from ordering directly from the manufacturers they meet there?
"In our industry that is just not done," responds Magaziner.
Purchasing a machine that "palletizes" one’s folding chairs
or boxes of crayons is a far more complex transaction than is purchasing
a toaster for the break room. For one thing, installation is required,
and manufacturers in this sector, according to Magaziner, do not provide
it. Hughes, and companies like it, keep installers on staff.
The second reason that Magaziner has no worries that expo attendees
will deal directly with manufacturers they meet at his offices is
that purchases of packaging equipment tend to be linked to purchases
of related equipment — often from a number of different manufacturers.
For example, a new system to automate packaging might integrate a
bar coder from one manufacturer with a taping system from another.
Hughes now specializes in consulting on, and implementing, such integration.
But that was not always the case.
"Our whole business changed three or four years ago," says
Magaziner. The reason, in large part, is the Internet. Hughes used
to concentrate on selling commodities such as equipment and supplies.
Doing so in the pre-Internet era involved sales forces and substantial
marketing efforts. Now, it is easy for just about anyone to sell just
about anything online — usually at discount. With competition
up and margins down, Hughes shifted tactics and became more of a technology
consulting company, helping clients to figure out the best way to
save money through automating packaging tasks.
In tough times, saving money is a potent automation driver, but, increasingly,
there is another prime driver. "Everyone’s worried about security,"
says Magaziner. In the packaging world, these concerns are raised
not only by terror attacks, but also by employee theft and by counterfeiting.
More automation means less human involvement with merchandise, and
manufacturers, he says, want as few humans in the packaging process
as possible.
But while manufacturers have compelling reasons to invest in automation
to get their goods to market, many have snap shut their checkbooks
during the past several years.
"We absolutely have found a reluctance to buy in the last year
or two," says Magaziner. Anyone selling to manufacturers who reports
a different sales climate, he suggests, is not being completely honest.
It’s tough out there. But he says his company has found a powerful
anti-reluctance weapon. "We combat it with leasing," he says.
Clients who do not want to go to upper management with a request for
a capital outlay are far more open to a no-cash-upfront leasing arrangement.
The strategy has seen Hughes through a difficult few years, and Magaziner
says that the spending drought may now be ending. "We’re seeing
more confidence," he says. Potential clients that were given quotes
12 to 18 months ago are now calling to express a readiness to buy.
This is not the first down cycle Magaziner has been through. He started
working part time for Hughes as a teen-ager. The company was founded
by his uncle, Max Polin, an 82-year-old who still stops by three to
four days a week. In 1988, Polin sold the privately-held company to
his son, Stephen Polin, and to Magaziner. The cousins divide up management
responsibility, with Polin largely concentrating on purchasing and
trucking and Magaziner heading up sales.
Magaziner grew up in the Philadelphia area and graduated from Philadelphia
University in 1983 with a degree in science and finance. He says he
was offered a job in a brokerage at graduation and "thought long
and hard" about taking it, but his uncle urged him to join Hughes,
and he accepted. He says he has never regretted the decision, and
cites the dynamic nature of the packaging industry as a reason. He
is hoping that his company’s display of some of the new technologies
moving the industry will make its first expo a popular, and profitable,
event.
Top Of Page
Is There a Cure For Malpractice Mess?
The operation is over, the drugs are just wearing off,
and the bill — for $10,000 — is in the mail. While the bill
may be itemized, listing operating room charges and drugs, one item
bulking up the charges will not be broken out. Approximately $1,000
of the price charged for the $10,000 operation will go to pay medical
malpractice insurance. The initial diagnostician, the surgeon, the
hospital, everyone involved pays increasingly large premiums, which
threaten to continue to move in only one direction.
This issue, seen as an untenable burden by many New Jersey physicians,
some of whom closed their offices in protest last winter, is the topic
of "Causes and Potential Solutions of the Medical Malpractice
Crisis," a seminar sponsored by the Hunterdon Chamber, and taking
place on Tuesday, June 10, at 11:30 a.m. at the Copper Hill Country
Club in Flemington. Cost: $35. Call 908-735-5955.
The featured speaker is
law firm of Norris McLaughlin & Marcus. He addresses the effect sky-high
premium costs have on medical centers and healthcare professionals,
and shows how these costs filter down to seemingly unrelated businesses
and individuals.
"It would be nice if we could just point our fingers at greedy
doctors, greedy insurers, greedy patients, or greedy lawyers,"
says Manger, "but the solution to the malpractice crisis is infinitely
more complex than purging a single villain." For the past 25 years,
Manger has worked on issues related to healthcare law. Born and raised
in Cranford, Manger, a C.P.A., graduated from Duke University with
an accounting major, and then earned his law degree from Columbia.
"Lawyers are notoriously bad accountants," he laughs. In fact,
when he was called to help a large physicians group establish the
Medical Inter-Insurance Exchange (MIIX,) back in the late 1970s, he
recounts, "I told them that I was not only an attorney, but also
a C.P.A., and I watched their shoulders visibly relax."
Ours is a litigious society, and there are indeed reasons to sue a
physician — there always have been. So why is the medical malpractice
issue suddenly so urgent, leading some doctors to leave practice and
others to predict that soon it will be difficult to find a doctor
to perform certain procedures — including basic ones like delivering
a baby? Here are some factors:
the late-1970s, when malpractice claims began exploding, insurance
companies sprang into action. Most pulled out of this unprofitable
business and those remaining boosted premiums to literally laughable
figures. In response, physicians and individual hospitals banded together
to form physician-financed insurance firms. Manger dislikes the term
"self-insured," which could conjure up a picture of two or
three doctors pooling pocket money just in case. "In fact,"
he says, "most of these firms handle hundreds of physicians and
are capitalized in the tens of millions."
MIIX grew rapidly, becoming the largest medical malpractice in the
state. But last year it collapsed under crushing debt. This not only
leaves thousands of doctors uncovered statewide, explains Manger,
but it lessens competition in the medical malpractice arena, a situation
that is bound to cause premium costs to rise.
do not profit primarily from premium inflow versus payout outflow.
Insurers depend heavily on policy premiums. In good markets the premiums
can easily earn double-digit returns. But with stock returns low to
deeply negative, and interest rates on everything from preferred stock
to tax free municipals hovering at historic lows, those premium dollars
are not multiplying at anything like the rate they did just a few
years ago.
Typically, malpractice insurers can net handsome earnings, even in
choppy markets, because of payout longevity. "Medical suits take
so long to try in court," notes Manger, "and so long to prove
and process that premiums get invested for substantial periods."
This is fine, unless your invested premiums are loosing value year
after year. At times like these, many large insurance companies look
abroad and loan money to foreign governments at rates that are higher
than the return on cash that is invested domestically. However, major
insurance players have traditionally avoided the very volatile malpractice
market, leaving it to smaller firms, which often do not have the wherewithal
for more complex international investment schemes.
The healthcare industry is pressuring physicians to perform more work
for less and less pay. "The doctor graduating today cannot hope
to earn anywhere near the money that his colleague did 30 years ago,"
says Manger. And, at the same time that revenues are down, physicians
must hire staffers — and sometimes whole departments — whose
sole job is to interact with the insurers.
The individual doctor no longer is reimbursed even at cost by most
insurance firms for some of the most basic procedures. One result
is that only large laboratories can take enough X-rays or draw enough
blood to make a profit from insurance reimbursement. Nevertheless,
if an individual physician decides to go ahead and draw his own patients’
blood, malpractice insurers may hit him with a monthly premium surcharge
for offering this basic, traditional service.
the public’s demands have become literally limitless. "We absolutely
expect perfection from physicians," Manger says, "and our tort
system is willing to award damages for anything less." This risk
does nothing to encourage insurers to take a chance on the medical
malpractice field.
be used in the same sentence as "malpractice crisis," notes
Manger. But he suggests a few improvements. With MIIX going under,
he sees a climate akin to the late-1970s, when physicians and hospitals
united to take care of their own insurance needs. The average American
doctor graduates from medical school with a diploma and $175,000 in
student loans. If he can join a physician-owned insurance system,
and pay relatively reasonable fees, he may just be able to hang out
his shingle.
An ideal solution, in Manger’s view, would be a new, statewide insurance
firm, owned and capitalized by physicians and perhaps individual hospitals,
that could fill this need. A second option could be a similar company,
administered by insurance professionals. Another workable scheme could
be the recruitment of a customer-capitalized out-of-state insurer.
Any such new major force would add reasonable competition, allow physicians
to get rid of outlandish bureaucratic rules, and provide coverage
at a still high — yet manageable — cost.
As the average American’s number of annual doctor visits continues
to increase, medicine becomes a larger portion of our lives and finances.
We may never return to the personal care we remember; the house call
is not likely to reappear any time soon. But we need to find a way
to keep our physicians from being insured out of business.
— Bart Jackson
Top Of Page
Anti-Sprawl Equals Pro-Downtown
G
sprawl one of the most important items on his agenda. This can only
be good news for the state’s downtowns, many of which have been leaching
people, jobs, and entertainment basics like movie theaters to the
suburbs around them.
Even before McGreevey announced a Smart Growth policy, however, the
state’s downtowns had begun an upswing. Impetus for any number of
improvements, and help in making them a reality, has come from Downtown
New Jersey (www.downtownnj.com), an organization that has been involved
in many a turnaround.
On Thursday, June 12, at 8 a.m., Downtown New Jersey holds its full-day
annual conference at the Grand Summit Hotel in Summit. Cost: $325.
For more information call Beth Lippman at 973-992-8800.
On the agenda are workshops on smart leasing strategies, making the
best use of second-story space, reclaiming brownfields, attracting
the arts, and creating transit-friendly villages. There will also
be case studies of successes in Summit, Livingston, and Lyndhurst.
Governor McGreevey has been invited to deliver the keynote.
Top Of Page
Douglass Gift
Thanks to $1.25 million from Regina Best Heldrich, Class
of 1942, Rutgers has restored its 79-year old chemistry building on
the Douglass College campus. The building has been renamed for her.
The project included an enhancement of the exterior and interior of
the building, built in 1924.
Top Of Page
Deadline Nears For Tech Fund Transfers
High technology and biotechnology companies have until
June 30 to apply to New Jersey’s Technology Business Tax Certificate
Transfer Program to raise cash to finance their growth and operations.
The competitive program, now in its fifth year, enables high-tech
and biotech companies to sell tax losses or research and development
credits to other businesses. It is administered by the New Jersey
Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) in conjunction with the New
Jersey Division of Taxation and the New Jersey Commission on Science
and Technology. Approvals are announced early in the fall.
Last year 166 companies were approved to share the $40 million available
annually through the program, which has proven to be effective in
providing support to high-tech businesses seeking to continue their
research, raise capital, and grow their companies.
To be eligible for the program, a company must be a new or expanding
technology or biotechnology business with a maximum of 225 employees,
at least 75 percent of whom must be based in New Jersey. The program
enables such companies to sell unused net operating loss (NOL) carryforwards
and unused research and development tax credits to other New Jersey
corporations for 75 percent of their value.
In turn, companies selling NOLs or research and development tax credits
are able to use the money they receive to finance business expenses,
including the purchase of equipment, facility expansions, or working
capital.
For more information visit www.njeda.com or call 609-292-0187.
Top Of Page
Media Watch
<d>Princeton Partners has formed a joint venture
with Ware Anthony Rust (WAR), a British firm based in Cambridge, to
provide strategic marketing campaigns and expert, local knowledge
to companies operating both in the United Kingdom/Europe and the United
States.
Working together, the agencies expect to be able to provide clients
an alternative to the huge multi-national agencies that often are
unable to provide strategic, cost-effective, customized marketing
solutions, said Tom Sullivan, president of Princeton Partners, based
at 100 Village Boulevard (609-452-8500; www.princetopartners.com).
The agency does advertising, interactive public relations, direct
marketing, database marketing, and sales promotion.
look courtesy of the creative team at
20 Nassau Street (609-924-3838; www.alanbrooks.com). The six-month
project began with extensive research of ELS and its long history,
its competitors, and several key ELS employees. The culmination of
this assignment was the design of a logo, stationery system, PowerPoint
design format. Also included in the project was a graphic standards
guide, which was built as a mini website to allow easy access to information
and files by domestic and international offices.
Alan Brooks, president of the agency, said in a written release: "The
biggest challenge to this assignment was to create a mark that would
be relevant internationally. We had to ensure that the design and
colors did not offend any cultures where the logo appears. Several
interviews with ELS personnel from overseas, and with foreign students,
gave us insight into what would be pertinent."
The agency has also signed the Franklin Institute Science Museum’s
sales and catering department, which has given it the task of creating
its new sales and capabilities brochure.
won two new New Jersey-based clients, the Home Health Assembly of
New Jersey and Independent Distributors of Electronics Association.
CMA, based at 191 Clarksville Road (609-799-6000; www.cmasolutions.com),
will arrange Home Health’s strategic planning retreat and will provide
branding, marketing, creative services to Independent Distributors.
In addition, CMA is set to implement a national public relations launch
and an on-going campaign for Independent Distributors.
West Delaware Avenue, Pennington (609-737-9200; www.wenzel.us), to
provide advertising, marketing, and public relations services. Founded
in the early 1940s by Nicolo Scozzari, the building company specializes
in concept-through-completion construction for commercial, industrial,
and institutional clients.
www.hollyrockmiller.com) has been signed to design ads and collateral
materials on behalf of the Delaware Smash, a World Team Tennis team.
World Team Tennis was co-founded by Billie Jean King in 1974. Its
roster includes Paul Goldstein, a former Davis Cup player, and Samantha
Reeves, who is ranked among the top 100 singles and doubles players
in the country.
Corrections or additions?
This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com
— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
Facebook Comments