7456, Princeton 08543. Robert C. Kelly, CEO. 609-587-3000; fax,

609-587-5355.

Robert C. Kelly, the former CEO of Enron Corp., has

replaced Zoltan Kiss as CEO of Energy Photovoltaics Inc. (EPV), a

research and development firm for solar photovoltaic technology. Kiss

remains at EPV as chairman and chief technology officer.

Kelly has a BS in engineering from West Point (Class of 1968) and

has master’s and PhD degrees from Harvard in public administration

and economics. Most recently he was chairman and CEO of Texas-based

Enron Renewable Energy, the nation’s largest natural gas company,

where he developed an Amoco/Enron joint venture in solar electric

power. "Continued growth in energy demand coupled with the

problems

of air pollution and global warming will create a significant demand

for solar energy," he says, "and EPV has the technology and

expertise to gain a large share of this rapidly growing market."

Founded by Kiss (previously founder of Chronar), the nine-year-old

EPV researches, designs, and sells photovoltaic technology, including

thin-film solar panels that produce electricity at a lower cost than

other photovoltaics currently produced. The company has 11

manufacturing

facilities around the world and plans to build four more this year.

It holds the largest commercial photovoltaic order to date — from

the Sacramento Utilities District.

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Contracts Awarded: PharmaSeq

Corporate

Plaza, Suite 204, Monmouth Junction 08852. Wlodek Mandecki, president

and CEO. 732-355-0100; fax, 732-355-0102. Home page:

http://www.pharmaseq.com.

Wlodek Mandecki’s young biotech company has received its fourth patent

regarding new microchip technology involving multiplex nucleic

acid-based

assays to develop rapid, sensitive DNA diagnostics. He says that his

company will seek additional capital to leverage this progress.

Founded

in 1997, PharmaSeq is applying microtransponder technology to DNA

diagnostic assays.

Top Of Page
Contracts Awarded: Healthcare Monitors

When a Medicaid client tries to fill a prescription,

a warning could flash on the pharmacist’s screen, advising that this

medication does not meet state guidelines — not because it is

expensive, but because it might react badly with another medication

being prescribed.

"If you look for savings from people not having drug reactions,

that can be a big savings." says Marion Pardes, director of

operations

at the College Road office of First Health Services Corp. Hers is

the first private company to contract with the state to monitor

clinical

aspects of those using public healthcare. The company does not deny

issuing a prescription based on cost but instead looks at the whole

medication picture: "If I deny somebody getting a drug, that may

save up to $100, but if I save them from having a reaction, that is

a much bigger picture, a more indirect way of saving money,"

Pardes

says.

After moving into an 8,000-foot College Road office that was chosen

for its proximity to Medicaid and Unisys offices on Quakerbridge Road,

Pardes has 35 nurses and pharmacists on staff and is hiring for

full-time

and part-time jobs with weekday hours.

Pardes grew up in Lakewood, the daughter of a bookkeeper and a

veterinarian,

and she lives in Toms River with her husband, an attorney, and their

school-aged daughter. She has a pharmacy degree from Northeastern

University, Class of 1980, and has worked in Children’s Hospital in

Washington, D.C., in independent retail drugstores, and as director

of pharmacy services for HIP New Jersey.

The parent organization, First Health Group, is based in Downer’s

Grove, Illinois, and the wholly-owned subsidiary is in a suburb of

Richmond, Virginia. Founded in 1968 to process medical insurance

claims,

First Health Services has 1,000 employees in 35 states. The firm has

three lines of business in government services — as a Medicaid

fiscal agent, as a manager of pharmacy benefits, and for utilization

review and quality analysis. Since 1972 it has been the fiscal agent

for Virginia Medicaid. It is New York City’s fiscal agent for an early

intervention program, and it also has outposts in Wilkes-Barre,

Harrisburg,

and Baltimore.

Unisys does New Jersey’s exception claims on the financial side, but

until now New Jersey was processing its own medical exception claims.

Princeton is part of the pharmacy benefit management group and began

operating on December 1.

"With `prior authorization’ you are providing a gatekeeper to

be sure that drugs with multiple purposes are being prescribed for

the right purposes and won’t interact with anything else," says

Marilyn Dix Smith, executive director of the International Society

for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research at 20 Nassau Street

(http://www.ispor.com).

"The intent is to guard against misuse of drugs."

"We are handling authorizations for state prescription

beneficiaries,"

says Pardes, "both for the Medicaid and PAD programs, where those

prescriptions, when dispensed, have some clinical issue that falls

outside the guidelines as determined by a state review board. We make

clinical decisions and may deny payment for the state."

The druggists, says Pardes, are not necessarily at fault when payment

is denied. Instead, problems are often caused by a patient’s going

to multiple pharmacies. "One druggist cannot see the prescriptions

that the beneficiary goes elsewhere to get dispensed. So when the

druggists enter the information and dial to a central clearing

computer,

they get an answer back right away if there is a problem. The other

option is putting the patient in jeopardy because there is a problem

with medication," she says.

The time lag in getting an answer back, during working hours, is

generally

less than 15 minutes, Pardes says, but if her office is not open —

and it is not an emergency, a druggist will hold the prescription.

For emergencies, a pharmacist with a laptop and dial-in access to

the system is on 24-hour call.

Road East, Princeton 08540. Marion Pardes, director of operations.

609-919-1892. Home page: http://www.fhsc.com.

Top Of Page
Expansions: Guardian Drug

Arvind

Dhruv, president. 609-394-5300; fax, 609-394-5301.

The private label manufacturer of stomach remedies is expanding from

72 Prince Street in Trenton to a facility formerly occupied by Block

Drug. It purchased the 135,000 foot single-floor building with a $7.5

million bond floated by the New Jersey Development Authority. The

target date for move-in is March.

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Expansions: nex-i.com

Baseman, president. 609-497-9400; fax, 609-497-9400. Home page:

http://www.nex-i.com.

The Research-park based firm that provides pre-packaged, plug-in local

area networks for companies and property managers sold 30 percent

of its ownership to AlphaNetSolutions of Cedar Knolls — the

company

that had been a lead investor in the first round of venture funding.

AlphaNet will provide technical services and network security

products,

although not exclusively, as the company expands into 11 different

states and the District of Columbia.

Nex-i.com also has space at 600 Alexander Road. Since last July the

company has grown from two to 15 employees (U.S. 1, August 18, 1999).

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Expansions: Princeton Softech

201, Princeton 08542-1423. Joseph A. Allegra, president. 609-688-5000;

fax, 609-497-0302. Home page:

http://www.princetonsoftech.com.

In spite of computer translations program, language translators are

still in demand. When it comes to moving databases between different

program languages, that can still be a problem. Princeton Softech

has announced that its suite of enterprise data management tools now

supports a half-dozen operating environments, and the most recent

is Informix.

"Data migration across heterogenous platforms and databases is

fundamental to so many business strategies, such as testing,

archiving,

business intelligence, and data sharing," says Joe Allegra,

president

of Princeton Softech, in announcing the Informix addition and a new

contract with Sandia National Laboratories. Later this year the

wholly-owned

subsidiary of Computer Horizons Corp will move more than double its

space with a move to University Park on Alexander Road.

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Expansions: Seber Logistics

Top Of Page
Expansions: Seber Logistics

Circle,

Princeton 08540. James J. Seber CMC, president. 732-940-1200; fax,

732-940-1284. Home page: http://www.seberinc.com.

Seber Logistics Consulting, which specializes in supply chain

analysis,

customer service, and network analysis, is expanding from North Centre

Drive to a 2,000 square foot office at Montgomery Knoll (U.S. 1,

November

18, 1988).

Top Of Page
Expansions: Interpool, MicroTech, Personal Computer Rentals

08540. Martin Tuchman, chairman and CEO. 609-452-8900; fax,

609-452-8211.

Home page: http://www.interpool.com.

East, Princeton 08540. Allen M. Olinger, president. 609-987-0077;

fax, 609-987-1011. Home page: http://www.mtlc.com.

East, Princeton 08540. 609-720-1411; fax, 609-720-0814. Home page:

http://www.pcrrent.com.

Expertise that works for leasing trucks will work for leasing

computers,

or so it would seem. MicroTech Leasing Corporation — a subsidiary

of Interpool, which handles chassis and container leasing systems

— expanded last year by buying Personal Computer Rental

corporation

(PCR), and PCR has moved from Cedar Brook Corporate Center to join

both MicroTech and Interpool at 211 College Road.

Using MicroTech’s funds, PCR bought more than $1 million worth of

equipment to rent, lease, or sell, and the College Road office is

its headquarters for 25 locations nationwide. The synergies are many:

PCR rents computers chiefly to the trade show industry, and MicroTech

leases such technology as PCs, network equipment, and telephony

equipment

to emerging growth companies.

Top Of Page
New in Town: Chirotech Technology Limited

Suite 313, Princeton 08540. Joseph Marasco, vice president.

609-750-9555;

fax, 609-760-99560.

With more than 70 employees worldwide, this pharmaceutical chemical

firm established a marketing and development office at the Carnegie

Center last fall. A developer of key chemical intermediates, it is

headquartered in Cambridge, England, and also has operations in the

United Kingdom, India, and Japan.

Top Of Page
New In Town: KFS & Associates

Holly Fronczak, account manager. 609-688-9992; fax, 609-688-9993.

Home page: http://www.kfsassoc.com.

This is the East Coast office of an Indiana-based advertising and

marketing firm that serves various industries. The office opened in

December.

Top Of Page
Crosstown Moves: Infinite Data Structures

101, Lawrenceville 08648. Robert Kelly, president. 609-219-0959; fax,

609-219-0459. Home page: http://www.infiniteds.com.

This firm is scheduled to move to 861 Alexander Road, formerly the

home of Princeton Polychrome, in early 2001. The deal was brokered

by Commercial Property Network for roughly $900,000. The company does

client-server development for bid and contract computer systems for

the pharmaceutical industry.

Parker Printing, a company that started out 60 years ago as a

letterpress

and stationery store in Trenton, acquired Polychrome, a high-tech

sheet-fed printer and separation house with a national reputation

for art reproduction (U.S. 1, April 26, 1995). As Parker

Communications

it consolidated Polychrome’s operations at 2630 Brunswick Pike.

Top Of Page
Crosstown Moves: MOI Inc.

Mila Montemayor, president. 609-730-8188; fax, 609-730-8111.

The consulting company moved from 2490 Pennington Road to

Lambertville,

closer to the owner’s residence. Phone and fax remain the same. The

firm focuses on marketing and strategic research, particularly for

the pharmaceutical industry.

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Crosstown Moves: Philips Semiconductors

08540. Anita Letzter, regional sales manager. 609-919-1133; fax,

609-919-0254.

Home page: http://www.vlsi.com.

After a stint in temporary space at 101 College Road, this 11-person

laboratory of a firm owned by a Dutch telecommunications pioneer has

made another move, to 4,700 square feet at 2 Research Way. Phone and

fax are new. The engineers here to custom design integrated circuits,

and the company was formerly known as VLSI Technology before it was

sold to Philips.

Top Of Page
Crosstown Moves: Telelogic

Per Blysa, vice president North America. 609-520-1935; fax,

609-520-8512.

Home page: http://www.telelogic.com.

This software design firm, a division of Saab Combitech Group, moved

from 200 to 206 Rockingham Row. It makes a software design tool, based

on SDL, used by telecommunications firms. The phone and fax numbers

are the same.

Top Of Page
Deaths

Ernest Johnston, 61, on January 26. The first black reporter

at the Star-Ledger, he had been managing editor of the Amsterdam News

and had written several articles for U.S. 1 Newspaper. Johnston

interviewed the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. a few weeks before the

civil rights leader was assassinated in 1968.

Corrections or additions?

— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.