Corrections or additions?
These articles were published in U.S. 1 Newspaper on August 11, 1999. All rights reserved.
Intercardia/Incara Influx
The company founded by Princeton University’s Daniel
Kahne is $1 million richer as of Monday, August 9. Founded as Transcell
Technologies, more recently known as Intercardia Research Laboratories,
the company had been going through some hard times, dropping from
35 employees to half that number at Cedar Brook Corporate Center.
But on Monday it received a milestone payment of $1.5 million from
Merck, with $500,000 going to the university, and $1 million to the
company. The payment is for research on an antibiotic of last resort
— a look alike to the powerful vancomycin, perhaps able to combat
increasingly resistant staphylococci or "superbugs." In various
models Merck was able to synthesize the firm’s specified compounds
of new antibiotics and to prove that they don’t damage the host.
"Determining how micro-organisms develop resistance and how to
combat that resistance remains an important scientific challenge,"
says Kahne, the scientific founder. "It’s exciting to be part
of a collaboration that translates basic research into a program that
has the potential to address a significant clinical problem."
The company that bought Transcell Technologies was founded as Intercardia
by a North Carolina-based firm named Interneuron. Though Interneuron
maintains a majority ownership in Intercardia, it restructured last
month. Since four of Intercardia’s five programs were not connected
with cardiovascular disease, it changed Intercardia’s name to Incara.
It also took majority ownership of the heart-related drug, Bextra.
Just three weeks later, Bextra clinical trials were halted, due to
"disappointing" results. Bextra, it seems, did not produce
a "statistically significant benefit for the patient population
as a whole."
The other four programs, including the one in Princeton, are still
viable. Earlier this year the Princeton lab had quit working on random
combinatorial libraries in favor of more targeted research. Robert
Goldman (senior director of biology) and David Gange (senior director
of chemistry) are working on three other anti-infective programs.
The company still has 33,000 square feet but is evaluating its sublease
options.
Center, Cranbury 08512. Barbara Schilberg, executive vice president.
609-655-6900; fax, 609-655-6930. Home page: http://www.incara.com.
Top Of Page
NJHA’s New Building
Rents in the Alexander Road corridor are rising so fast
that the New Jersey Hospital Association is pulling out of leased
space and building on its own 25-acre property.
V.J. Scozzari & Sons Inc. is building the 12,400 square-foot facility,
on the site of a residence that NJHA had owned. About 45 people who
work in the for-profit areas of the NJHA — the group purchasing
department, the insurance division, and a data analysis operation
— will move out of rented quarters at University Square. The new
building, east of the main campus, will be connected by a footpath.
"Since we own this property, we thought it would be more efficient
to have our own building," says Ron Czajkowski, vice president,
"and we had the money to do it."
The statewide hospital association was the first to develop property
on Alexander Road. It moved into the first building at 760 in 1974,
a decade before the Carnegie Center was built. The trade association
represents hospitals and other healthcare providers. As the Health
Research Educational Trust it provides research and continuing education
for hospitals, other healthcare providers and the public. It also
has a conference center.
"The primary reason for us building our own was escalating rental
prices," says Czajkowski. "We can build cheaper than we can
rent."
Top Of Page
Expansions
08540. Kenneth J. Peterson, president. 609-921-3551; fax, 609-921-1061.
This information management recruiting and consulting service has
expanded to an additional office at 266 Wall Street.
Suite 305, Princeton 08540. Martyn Greenacre, president and CEO. 609-720-0033;
fax, 609-520-6692.
The biotech company is moving out of its College Road laboratory,
a sublet from Cytogen, and into a 14,000-foot lab at 11 Deer Park
Drive, Suite 206, Princeton Corporate Plaza. The privately-held firm
develops automated drug manufacturing and delivery systems through
electrostatic dry powder.
Holly A. Falco, 609-395-9033; fax, 609-395-9532.
Michael Grainger, owner. 609-259-7101; fax, 609-259-3124.
Michael Grainger has bought a controlling interest in the FSM Group,
office furniture and relocation consultants. Grainger’s firm, the
GPM Group, was formerly known as Grainger Painting and Maintenance.
FSM will continue as a separate operation at its current location
and will be managed by Holly A. Falco. "Single-source accountability
for the facilities management function is where the new direction
is headed," says Falco.
Facility Service Management offers advisory services such as managing
furniture procurement and relocation master planning. Clients include
Benetton, American General Assurance Co., Princeton Credit Corporation,
Journal of Commerce, Rhodia, Colgate-Palmolive Company, and Bell Atlantic.
Princeton 08543. Vernon Long, executive director. 609-452-9753; fax,
609-452-9519.
Opportunities for All, a for-profit agency that places both the disabled
and non-disabled in jobs, opened in 1,500 square feet two years ago
but has 8,500 feet now.
Top Of Page
New in Town
08540. Samir Sheth, president. 732-355-0010. 0013
Samir Sheth moved his four-person software company to South Brunswick
from Piscataway. It does back-end software for E-commerce and finance
applications, particularly for brokerage houses. Sheth is a native
of Bombay and graduated from the College of Engineering at Pune in
1985.
Lawrenceville 08648. 609-896-1108; fax, 609-896-3016.
Rick Babick has opened a market research firm for the tabletop, giftwares,
and collectibles industry.
Road, Princeton 08648. Chris Beaupre, president. 609-895-8855; fax,
609-895-0257.
Earlier this year the administrative office for an organization providing
group homes for patients with head trauma opened an office at Princess
Road.
Top Of Page
Leaving Town
07724. Steven Amendola, vice president, research. 732-542-4000; fax,
732-542-4010.
The chemical R&D firm founded in 1998 has relocated its corporate
offices and laboratories labs from Cedar Brook Corporate Center in
Cranbury to Eatontown. The new facility more than doubles the previous
space.
A subsidiary of GP Strategies (NYSE), Millennium Cell has developed
a safe generator for producing controlled amounts of hydrogen gas
from water-based solutions (U.S. 1, October 28, 1998). The hydrogen
gas, rapidly formed on-demand by the generator, can either be converted
through fuel cells to produce electricity and pure water, or burned
directly as a clean nonpolluting fuel in internal combustion engines.
Scientists are currently retrofitting a Ford Explorer to run solely
on hydrogen gas, says Mike Binder, senior scientist.
Top Of Page
Deaths
for Dick Greenfield Dodge.
with Weichert Realtors.
of the Friends of Princeton Public Library and a 37-year volunteer
for the Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic.
researcher at American Cyanamid.
with CUH2A.
Corrections or additions?
This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com
— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
Facebook Comments