Oberon FMC won the 2008 BioWest Venture Showcase, including the $10,000 prize sponsored by Dorsey and White. Oberon FMC, which seeks to provide a cost-effective protein meal for use in fish feed, is a Colorado based company headquartered in Idaho Springs. Despite facing an audience who may be more comfortable contemplating the latest drug development or DNA sequencing, Oberon CEO Randy Swenson was able to clearly articulate both Oberon’s technology and its return opportunity.
The company has developed a proprietary process to extract protein from the bacteria used to clean waste water coming from food processing plants. Oberon’s product generates benefit both to the original food manufacturers and to users of the protein meal, aqua farmers. For food manufacturers the need for disposal of the bacteria as sludge as currently done is eliminated, generating savings in the millions of dollars for a large plant. For aqua farmers, Oberon’s product will be competitively priced with existing protein sources (bait fish caught in the wild) which are in limited supply. This single cell protein may also increase growth of some species as demonstrated in a study of Tilapia (studies in other species are planned). Oberon thinks it can produce an operational plant, to be collocated with the plant of a major food producer, for about $9M, with a return on investment falling within a two year time frame. In perhaps an early hint as to who would ascend the podium at the Awards Dinner, Swenson drew the most questions of the finalists from the judging panel on topics ranging from the potential for food producer financing to competition from other protein options like yeast from ethanol.
Summaries of the other finalists are found below:
Accuthera LLC is developing small molecule therapies to inhibit the activity neutrophil elastase and proteinase-3, enzymes that generate and amplify the inflammatory response. Accuthera’s initial target indication is preventing acute lung injury (ALI) and associated tissue damage inside the lung from the inflammatory response that can occur in patients with pneumonia, influenza, SARS, or traumatic injury. Accuthera has a unique path to market through targeting both biodefense and commercial indications. Biodefense opens the possibility to substantial grant funding (potentially $30M or more) as well as pre-commercial sales of up to $500M to the Strategic National Stockpile. CEO John Cheronis also thinks that clinical trial design will be key to showing efficacy where other therapies have failed. Current clinical plans include giving the treatment before the development of ALI and running separate trials for the different conditions that can cause ALI.
Aqueous Biomedical Inc is a device company focused on understanding the interaction between physical forces and biomedical implants. The company’s lead product, Oculieve, is a shunt to relieve over-pressurization of the eye from glaucoma. Oculieve features substantially different geometry than existing shunts using a cylindrical design as opposed to a sphere which Aqueous thinks will provide more efficient filtration by maximizing surface area while minimizing volume. Aqueous hopes that this design will limit adverse effects as well as lengthening the life of the shunt. CEO Johan Baeck stated the company, which hopes to start a 10 patient Phase 1 trial in the next few months, will need to go through the more stringent PMA approval process (as opposed to 510k) but thinks the company could be to market by early 2012.
BiOptix LLC has developed a highly sensitive biosensor that can detect very low concentrations of many analytes including mRNA, viruses, bacteria, proteins, and antibodies. The unique patented biosensor design uses the common path interferometric detection principle, meaning the degree to which components of polarized light are refracted by passing through a sample. While this technique is known to have good sensitivity, it is also known to be very susceptible to noise. BiOptix circumvents this challenge by using array technology that allows several samples – including controls – to be analyzed at the same time on a single chip with no moving parts. Additionally, the detection does not require labels (e.g. reagents containing fluorescent dyes that attach to the molecule of interest). The company plans to sell with a razor/razor-blade model (device and consumable chip) and initially target markets with lower regulatory hurdles, beginning with the pharmaceutical quality assurance market followed by academic research.
Snoasis Medical focuses on products for use in perioplastic surgery (surgery on the gums and surrounding area) produced from placental tissue, specifically the amnion, and the innermost layer of the amniotic sac. Compared to the common surgical techniques to treat gum recession, Snoasis’ product would save significant surgical time (up to a 50-80% reduction) and pain due the products ability to adhere without suturing. The company’s lead product has already been implanted in over 100 patients. The company also has a thicker second generation product. Due to be a tissue product, company president Robert Tofe called the regulatory process facing the company “the least stringent” which leads to hopes for commercial distribution in 2009. The company had partnered with Surgical Biologics for distribution and production.
Along with the Venture Showcase award, six other non-cash prizes were distributed at the Biowest Conference dinner:
Company of the Year: Given to CardianBCT, a leading global provider of technology, products and services in automated blood collections, therapeutic systems, whole blood processes and pathogen reduction technologies, dedicated to “better blood for better lives.”
Rising Star: Awarded to Sierra Nuero, a company focused on the development and commercialization of centrally administered small molecule therapeutics for the treatment of severe CNS diseases refractory to oral medications.
Volunteer of the Year: Given to Chris Lapore, Director of State Government Affairs for Johnson & Johnson and chair of the Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers of America – Colorado Task Force.
Partner of the Year: Jim Linfield, partner at Cooley Godward. He is the partner in charge of the Colorado office and joined the Firm in 1993. He is also a member of the Firm’s Management Committee.
Colorado Teacher of the Year: Brenda Dempsey, from Castle View High School in Douglas County. Brenda was quite generous in congratulating the Colorado life science community in accepting her award, believing it “vital to society, vital to humanity, and vital to our world.”
Chairman’s Award: CBSA Chairman Jack Wheeler presented this prize, this year split between two extraordinary recipients:
- Bill Ritter, Governor of Colorado. Governor Ritter backed and signed a $26.5 million incentive package for biotechnology research in April of 2008, citing life sciences as a central pillar of his economic growth strategy for the state of Colorado. Tonight, even amidst brutal economic forecasts, the Governor reiterated his support in his keynote address to the conference for ongoing policy designed to enhance the state’s competiveness in the bioscience industry.
- Denise Brown, retiring Executive Director of the Colorado Bioscience Association. Ms. Brown, Executive Director of the CBSA, is credited for taking the organization from a group that could meet inside a conference room in 2002 to a body encompassing hundreds of companies at her exit in 2008. Her contribution is best captured by Governor Ritter: During my candidacy, Denise “outlined the possibilities here in Colorado. No one articulated better how we could dream of those possibilities and catapult the state to the success of today.”
