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Published in U.S. 1 Newspaper on May 17, 2000. All rights
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Princeton’s R&D Community: Part I
Some editor once said that if newspapers didn’t have to cover all the
news, they’d be able to tell people what is really going on.
This week we held back on our news pages, the Life in the Fast Lane
section with its usual assortment of moves, start-ups, and expansions,
and instead have devoted all the space to details on a cross-section
of Princeton’s 250 R&D companies that aren’t ready to make news —
yet. These companies are quietly at work making products that will be
newsworthy in the months and years to come.
We print these R&D listings at regular intervals to show the breadth
and depth of Princeton’s research community. This issue focuses on the
medical device firms, but we packed in as many as we could from the
other types of companies that responded to our faxed request for
information. They represent well over 15,000 Central Jersey workers
engaged in biotechnology, electronics, chemistry, or pharmaceuticals
— and that doesn’t begin to count all the service companies who are
paid to do ancillary services such as lab work, clinical research,
marketing, and so on.
These four dozen listings represent just one-sixth of Princeton’s R&D
companies overall. We did try to list each and every medical device
company, so you’ll get the complete picture of that area. But as for
all those that do drug delivery, combinatorial chemistry, imaging, and
gene sequencing — or those that operate even further afield, in the
areas of electronics and multimedia, for instance — we had room only
for those companies that responded to our information request. See the
complete array in the U.S. 1 Business Directory, partially available
online at www.princetoninfo.com/bizdir.html.
Top Of Page
Medical Devices
Artegraft Inc., 220 North Center Drive, North
Brunswick 08902; 732-422-8333; fax, 732-422-8647.
Founded 1993. Richard A. Gibson, president and CEO. Staff size: 7.
Square feet: 4,500.
Medical device manufacturing — vascular access grafts
made from cow arteries for hemodialysis, chemically processed and
permanently implanted.
Convatec, a Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, 100
and 200 Headquarters Park Drive, CN 5254, Princeton 08543-5254;
908-904-2500;
fax, 908-281-2687. www.convatec.com. Founded 1978. Gary Restani,
president. Staff size: 300.
Manufacturer of ostomy, wound, and skin care products,
and continence care products.
EchoCath Inc., 4326 Route 1 North, Box 7224,
Princeton 08543-7224; 609-987-8400; fax, 609-987-1019. Stock symbol:
ECHTU. Frank DeBernardis, president. Staff size: 15.
Research and development of high tech medical devices.
Just approved: EchoFlow technology provides flow data from vessels
for vascular and coronary bypass surgery. Future applications will
include feedback control of pacemakers and implantable defibrillators.
EchoEye technology will eventually allow clinicians to view tissues
and organs inside the body in 3-D real-time and provide intravascular
images and guidance for minimally invasive ultrasound guided
procedures.
FEI Technologies, 109 Morgan Lane, Plainsboro
08536-9636; 609-897-0809; fax, 609-897-9636. Founded 1992. Staff size:
14. Square feet: 2,200.
Manufacturer of copper intrauterine devices.
Top Of Page
Devices for Testing
i-STAT Corporation, 104 Windsor Center Drive,
East Windsor 08520; 609-443-9300; fax, 609-443-9310.
Stock symbol: STAT. Founded 1984. William P. Moffitt, president and
CEO. Staff size: 150.
Diagnostic blood analysis equipment manufacturing. In
March 2000 i-STAT became the first company in history to offer blood
gas, electrolyte, metabolite, glucose, and coagulation testing on
a single platform. Also new, an i-STAT Analyzer that combines the
testing capabilities of i-STAT and Abbott/Medisense into a single
hand-held instrument.
Medical Indicators Inc., 1589 Reed Road,
Pennington
08534; 609-737-1600; fax, 609-737-0588.
Founded 1985. Ronald Benincasa, president. Staff size: 28.
Manufacturing and R&D of liquid crystal thermometers for
baby and adult use. Production of 20 million thermometers annually,
including TraXit, a double-sided heart-shaped adhesive, placed under
a child’s armpit, that provides 48-hour monitoring. To come: method
for basal body temperature studies for women of reproductive age and
a baby bottle that would heat uniformly in a microwave oven.
Princeton BioMeditech Corp., 4242 Route 1 North,
Box 7139, Princeton 08543-7139; 732-274-1000; fax, 732-274-1010.
Founded
1988. Jemo Kang, president. Staff size: 85. Square feet: 25,000.
PBM Technologies, R&D and manufacture of advanced medical
rapid diagnostic products, or one-step blood and urine tests for
pregnancy,
ovulation, drug use, rubella, and mononucleosis.
Sensors Unlimited, 3490 Route 1, Building 12,
Princeton 08540; 609-520-0610; fax, 609-520-0638.
Founded 1991. Gregory H. Olsen, president. Staff size: 80. Square
feet: 11,000.
World-leading fiber optic component design, fabrication,
and supply. Manufacturers of infrared detectors, cameras with infrared
detectors, infrared focal-place-arrays and infrared lasers. The
products
are used in diverse applications such as medical, non-invasive blood
analysis, agricultural sorting, masters’ artwork analysis, military
communications and telecommunications.
One project currently under development is a non-invasive
glucose monitoring kit for home use, being developed with several
other companies around the world. The detector reads the amount of
sugar in the blood of a finger held up to it. Another use will be
for blood alcohol readings.
For agricultural product sorting, a detector can determine
ripeness of fruit, based on sugar content, sort rice from chaff, and
sort nuts from shells, as in making candy. Also in development,
wavelength
division multiplexing — for more efficient fiber optics. Instead
of sending one wavelength down a fiber there could be up to 64
wavelengths
on a fiber.
Unipath Diagnostics Co., 47 Hulfish Street, Suite
400, Princeton 08542; 609-430-2727; fax, 609-430-1197.
Stock symbol: UNLV. Founded 1997. Patricia Nasshorn, president, U.S.
division. Staff size: 23. Square feet: 7,100.
A division of the U.K.-based Unilever, the marketing arm
for a complete line of women’s reproductive diagnostics, including
ClearBlue Easy One Minute Pregnancy Test (the first one-step home
pregnancy test), the ClearPlan Easy Ovulation Test (the first one-step
test of its kind), and the ClearPlan Easy Fertility Monitor, a $199
palm-size computer that uses urine tests to pinpoint the exact days
in a woman’s cycle when conception is most likely (U.S. 1, November
17, 1999). The data can even be downloaded to a computer so the
ongoing
personal fertility data — including the Intercourse Event Card
— can be printed out and shared with a physician or partner.
Unipath
also launched the Fertility Talk campaign to educate women to make
informed choices about their reproductive healthcare.
Top Of Page
Derma/Skin Delivery
Derma Sciences Inc., 214 Carnegie Center, Suite
100, Princeton 08540; 609-514-4744; fax, 609-514-0502.
Stock symbol: DSCI. Founded 1984. Edward J. Quilty, CEO. Staff size:
8.
Full range of wound management and skin care products,
total of 60 employees.
Galderma Research and Development Inc., 5 Cedar
Brook Drive, Suite 1, Cranbury 08512; 609-409-7701; fax, 609-409-7705.
www.galderma.com. Janusz Gernielewski, president. Staff
size: 35. Square feet: 58,987.
Research and development of dermatology pharmaceutical
products, owned by L’oreal and Nestle, headquarters in France.
Hy-Gene Inc., 36 South Broad Street, Box 9017,
Trenton 08650; 609-291-8683; fax, 609-291-1997. www.hy-gene.com.
Founded 1987. John J. Wille, president and COO. Square feet: 650.
Tissue engineering and medical device company working
on autologous cloned skin grafts (for treatment of burns, chronic
wounds, and other tissue replacement uses) and an emulsion-based drug
delivery technology.
Integra LifeSciences Corporation, 105 Morgan
Lane, Box 688, Plainsboro 08536; 609-275-0500; fax, 609-799-3297.
www.integra-ls.com. Stock symbol: IART. Founded 1989. Stuart
M. Essig, president/CEO. Staff size: 169. Square feet: 35,000.
Tissue and organ replacements, including artificial skin,
cartilage, and nerve conduits. Integra Artificial Skin is a bi-layer
membrane system for skin replacement.
NexMed Inc., 350 Corporate Boulevard,
Robbinsville
08691; 609-208-9688; fax, 609-208-1868. www.nexmed.com. Stock
symbol: NEXM. Founded 1987. Joseph Mo, chairman, CEO, and president.
Staff size: 15. Square feet: 11,000.
Topical creams for sexual dysfunction for men and women.
U.S. Dermatologics Inc. (USD), 133 Franklin
Corner
Road, Lawrenceville 08648; 609-219-1166; fax, 609-219-1188. D.
Brooks Cole, president.
Patented patch therapy for treating common topical skin
problems such as acne and fungal infections.
Top Of Page
Hydrogel Devices
Hydro Med Sciences, 8 Cedar Brook Drive, Cedar
Brook Corporate Center, Cranbury 08512; 609-409-9010; fax,
609-409-1650.
www.hydromed.com. Stock symbol: GPX. Founded 1972. David Kunin,
vice president. Staff size: 20. Square feet: 12,000.
Manufacture of topical and implantable drug delivery
devices,
a division of GP Strategies Corporation. Hydron Implant — a
proprietary
subcutaneous hydrogel retrievable device that can deliver a broad
spectrum of therapeutic compounds at controlled, constant release
rates for up to one year and longer.
Hymedix Inc., 2245 Route 130, Suite 101, Dayton
08810; 732-274-2288; fax, 732-274-2426. www.hymedix.com.
Stock symbol: HYNX. Charles K. Kliment, CEO. Staff size: 15. Square
feet: 20,000.
Cosmetics, proprietary hydrogels, drug delivery systems,
wound care products, lubricious coatings, implants, sensors, etc.
Replication Medical Inc., 5 Crescent Avenue,
Princeton Business Park, Suite B-1, Box 739, Rocky Hill 08553-0739;
609-921-2854; fax, 609-683-8768. Founded 1980. David Anderson,
president.
Staff size: 5. Square feet: 2,600.
Orthopedic applications of hydrogels for replacement of
nuclei in spinal disks, also prevention of scar tissue formation,
formerly Biomimetics.
Top Of Page
Drug Delivery
Delsys Pharmaceutical Corporation, 11 Deer Park
Drive, Suite 202, Monmouth Junction 08852; 732-329-3407; fax,
609-520-6692.
www.delsyspharma.com. Founded 1997. Martyn Greenacre, president
and CEO. Staff size: 54. Square feet: 2,500.
A Sarnoff Corporation spinoff that develops dry powder
electrostatic deposition technology to formulate and manufacture
proprietary
pharmaceutical dosage forms. By accurately depositing only the drug
substance onto a film the technology enables unique products,
simplifies
manufacturing, and allows the drug content of each individual dosage
unit to be measured. Delsys also expects its Accudep technology to
expand the market opportunities for many marketed drugs as well as
streamline the formulation process for compounds in development.
EpiGenesis Pharmaceuticals Inc., 2005 Eastpark
Boulevard, Cranbury 08512; 609-409-6080; fax, 609-409-6126.
Founded 1995. Jonathan W. Nyce PhD, chairman and CEO. Staff size:
15. Square feet: 5,100.
Drug discovery and development company focusing on
respiratory
diseases. Drugs delivered to target tissue, discovery of genetic basis
for such diseases as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,
chronic bronchitis, respiratory infections, and lung cancer.
Gynetics Inc., 105 Raider Boulevard, Suite 203,
Belle Mead 08502; 908-359-2429; fax, 908-359-6660.
Jack E. Stover, chief operating officer.
Development and marketing of drugs and devices to advance
women’s health, specifically emergency contraception kits.
Lavipharm Laboratories Inc., 69
Princeton-Hightstown
Road, East Windsor 08520; 609-448-3001; fax, 609-371-9174.
Founded 1911. Zsolt E. Lavotha, president and CEO. Staff size: 30.
Square feet: 50,000.
A new proprietary transdermal patch for treating skin
blemishes — the pHisoderm Blemish Patch — is sold in drug,
mass merchandise, and grocery stores. Lavipharm says it developed
this technology first and is the only firm to use it to market a
cosmetic
patch. In Europe, where it has been available for four years, the
patch is sold as Normaderm/Vichy, Synergie, Jade, and Plenitude. It
delivers a concentrated formula of salicylic acid, triclosan, and
chamomile to reduce the blemish, kill bacteria, and soothe the skin
within six to eight hours. Other patches are for patches for
anti-wrinkle,
cleansing, reducing eye puffiness and dark circles, healing dry skin,
and lightening age spots.
The firm’s base technologies are Microparticulate
Solubilization
Technology (to increase water solubility) and Supercritical Fluid
Applications. It works with transdermal drug delivery systems (selling
a nitroglycerine patch under a variety of trade names), intraoral
delivery systems, Quick-Dis (fast-dissolving systems for pain
management
erectile dysfunction, and asthma), and Slow-Dis (slow-dissolving
system
for cardiovascular drugs, and respiratory therapies).
MicroDose Technologies Inc., 4262 Route 1 North,
Suite 3, Monmouth Junction 08852; 732-329-2401; fax, 732-329-8502.
www.microdose-tech.com. Founded 1996. Anand V. Gumaste PhD,
president and CEO. Staff size: 14. Square feet: 7,500.
Development of pulmonary, oral, and transdermal drug
delivery
systems, and a broad, patented product portfolio of drug delivery
systems. This hand-held, low cost breath-activated MicroDose inhaler,
the first totally electronic dry powder inhaler, uses innovative
"piezo
electronics" technology to efficiently deliver such asthma drugs
as budesonide and fluticasone as well as smoking cessation and acute
pain management drugs. Testing indicates superior performance and
easier use compared with existing inhalers, and the reaction from
major pharmaceutical companies has been very enthusiastic. This
patented
drug delivery system could extend the patent life of proprietary drugs
that have outlived their patents.
Seven companies are testing their compounds in the
MicroDose
inhaler, and officials expect to sign two licensing and development
agreements by the end of this year. With a UK-based company, Quadrant
Healthcare plc, MicroDose is using formulation and particle
engineering
technology to develop an inhaler that will deliver peptides and
proteins
via the lungs. The first would deliver rapid acting insulin. Human
trials for inhaleable insulin will are scheduled for the fourth
quarter
of this year.
Another technology, the MicroDose electrostatic deposition
system (MEDS), transfers electronic printing technology to
pharmaceutical
manufacturing. It helps solve the previously unsolvable problem of
how to package small quantities of powdered drugs. It is used to fill
drug containers and unit dose blisters. It also helps produce new
solid oral dosage forms with controlled release and site specific
release characteristics to bring new life to drugs soon to go off
patent. It can also speed up clinical trials by rapidly producing
a variety of oral dosage forms at the rate of thousands of unit doses
a day.
Future products for this company include needle free
injection
systems, a handheld nebulizer, and a programmable transdermal patch.
Nika Health Products Inc., 4519 Provinceline
Road, Princeton 08540; 609-921-0089; fax, 609-688-10031. Founded 1988.
Wojciech Piasecki, director. Staff size: 4.
Discovery and r&d of proprietary platform technologies
involving the treatment of infectious diseases, also virosome delivery
systems for drug and gene therapies.
Pharmaceutical Quality Associates, 20 Nassau
Street, Suite 202, Princeton 08542; 609-683-9484; fax, 609-683-9487.
Founded 1995. Leonard Kaplan PhD, president. Staff size: 3.
Consulting services and product development of oral and
topical drug delivery systems. Patents have been filed for a new low
cost AIDS intradermal treatment that is administered along with
conventional,
more expensive regimens to immuno-suppressed individuals infected
with HIV. This treatment increases CD4 lymphocyte counts.
Therics Inc., 115 Campus Drive, University
Square,
Princeton 08540; 609-514-7200; fax, 609-514-7219.
Founded 1993. Jim Wavle, president/CEO. Staff size: 43. Square feet:
23,000.
Manufacturing of medical products using TheriForm, a
fabrication
process with three-dimensional printing.
Top Of Page
Electronic Biotech
High Power Devices (HPD), 1200-A Airport Road,
New Brunswick 08902; 732-249-2228; fax, 732-249-8139.
Founded 1995. Tom Moritz, CEO. Staff size: 20. Square feet: 8,000.
Manufacturer of semiconductor lasers for medical, pumping,
lidar (laser radar) and other military and commercial applications.
HPD is on the leading edge of supplying components for ophthalmic
applications and various lasers for photodynamic therapy.
MMTC, 12 Roszel Road, Suite A 203, 205, Princeton
08540; 609-520-9699; fax, 609-520-9859. www.mmtc.com. Founded
1987. Fred Sterzer, president. Staff size: 8.
Microwave technology research for cancer diagnosis &
therapy,
treatment of benign prostatic hypertrophy, wound healing, and adult
sleep apnea. cancer diagnosis and therapy, treatment of benign
prostatic
hypertrophy, wound healing, adult sleep apnea
Physiome Sciences, 307 College Road East,
Princeton
08540; 609-987-1199; fax, 609-987-9393. www.physiome.com.
Founded 1994. Jeremy M. Levin, president and CEO. Staff size: 28.
Square feet: 8,000.
Software products to simulate biological processes on
the computer. On its $2 million supercomputer this firm operates a
fully functional, three-dimensional, interactive model of a working
heart, a detailed math-based model of how the heart actually works
(U.S. 1, May 13, 1998). The virtual heart provides a quantitative,
comprehensive, verifiable, and usefully predictive model of the heart
based on the properties of the heart’s individual cells and the
biochemical
functions they perform. It breaks down the millions biological
processes
going on inside the heart, describes them as mathematical equations,
and then assembles them and all their actions and interactions to
create an electronic heart that "works" just like a real one.
The heart can be programmed to have a heart attack, or
develop congestive heart failure, or go into arrhythmia, and it can
help identify and test new potential drugs faster and cheaper than
with traditional animal testing.
Sarnoff Corporation, 201 Washington Road, CN
5300, Princeton 08543-5300; 609-734-2000; fax, 609-734-2040.
Founded 1942. James E. Carnes, president & CEO. Staff size: 800.
Square
feet: 600,000.
Creation and commercialization of electronic, information,
and biomedical technologies, client-funded R&D, licensing of
technology,
development and incubation of venture companies. Biotech research
includes imaging technologies.
Sarnoff’s latest technology includes the Acadia I PCI
vision engine, the first plug-in PCI board to add real-time vision
processing power to PCs and workstations for military, medical,
commercial,
and consumer applications. Built around the new Acadia I chip, the
world’s fastest and most powerful vision processor, it allows
Windows-based
PCs to stabilize shaky video to within 1/10th pixel, create seamless
panoramas from successive frames of video, detect and track motion,
and perform other vision processing functions in real time with only
one to two frames of latency. Not other solution is currently
available
for video captured with a moving camera.
At only 1.2 inches square by 1 inch deep Sarnoff’s new
BLINC smart digital camera is ideal for surveillance, automotive,
machine vision, and Internet imaging uses. Built around the CMOS
Active
Pixel Sensor technology, it significantly outperforms conventional
cameras in resolving highlight and shadow detail. It more than 100
times the dynamic range of typical cameras and goes from power-down
to accurate image capture in less than 1/10 second, compared to the
usual two seconds.
Similar technology will be used by Litton Electro-Optical
Systems (LEOS) to create a video-enabled night vision system for the
United States Army Communications Electronics Command (CECOM).
Sarnoff’s CCD (charge-coupled device) technology is the
basis for a government subcontract to develop up to 10 full camera
systems for the U.S. Air Force to trap dim objects in space, such
as U.S. and foreign satellites. A large-format backside illuminated
CCD will allow more precise tracking of objects of lower visibility
than with existing systems. This effort is part of the $5 million
Deep STARE project, awarded to TRW’s Space and Missile Systems
division.
Siemens Corporate Research Inc., 755 College
Road, Princeton Forrestal Center, Princeton 08540; 609-734-6500; fax,
609-734-6565. www.scr.siemens.com. Founded 1977. Thomas Grandke,
president and CEO. Staff size: 150. Square feet: 100,000.
Exploratory and applied research in software engineering,
imaging/optical data processing, and learning systems. One area
concentrates
on rehabilitative and assisting technologies (impaired mobility,
dexterity,
hearing, speech, and vision), home and health automation technologies
for seniors, health care information systems (diagnosis, therapy,
and telemedicine), and health center simulation modeling (predictions
of patient capacity, bottlenecks, and financial returns).
Current research in the areas of pattern detection and
recognition, involves advanced algorithms and techniques for
industrial
and medical applications in order to automate complex visual processes
which were not previously possible. In the area of enhanced virtual
reality, techniques are being developed for rapid construction of
3D models of human organs by integrating image processing and computer
graphics technologies.
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