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jyeager@grpva.com

(804) 643-3227

 

Greater Richmond Partnership, Inc.

Nicole M. Colomb

Consultant-Life Sciences, Business Development

(804) 828-6884

ncolomb@vabiotech.com


901 E. Byrd St.

Richmond, VA 23219-1234 
(804) 643 3227
(800) 229 6332

 

 

Partners

 

Virginia Biotechnology Research Park: Transforming Innovation into Opportunity

 

American Institute of Chemical Engineers-Tidewater Chapter

 

Richmond Joint Engineers Council

Issue 5  Volume 3:
October 7, 2008

The EpiCard Epic

 

Intelliject's auto-injection device for treating food allergies is shaping up to be a blockbuster. And it's just the first of many promising products likely to flow from the Richmond lab.

 

 

by James A. Bacon

 

Intelliject, LLC, finds itself in an enviable position right now. Although the fledgling company still needs to file a New Drug Application with federal regulators for its product, the EpiCard, and then await agency approval, it has giant pharmaceutical companies standing in line to do business. The biggest challenge the company faces right now, says CEO Spencer Williamson, is picking the right partner.

 

That's a lot of due diligence for a 10-person firm. "It's the kind of problem a lot of people would like to have," Williamson says. "But it's still a problem."

 

Truly, most start-up businesses would love to have Intelliject's problems. So vast is the market for the EpiCard -- millions of Americans suffering from severe allergies need a device that can make emergency injections of epinephrine -- that Intelliject is in a position to command up-front payment for rights to license the product before it has even won FDA approval.

 

Williamson

 Even more enviable, unlike most companies that have developed a new drug or medical device, Intelliject has not struggled to raise capital. The first three rounds -- family & friends, angel, institutional -- will largely suffice. Instead of raising cash to build a large organization, Intelliject will use royalties from the EpiCard to

underwrite development of follow-up products. Says Williamson: "We may put a little more capital in at some point, but we have been blessed from the start with significant interest and access to value-add capital."

 

Richmond has never seen anything quite like Intelliject. Local life sciences ventures have raised tens of millions of dollars in outside capital, and some companies have shown modest success, but no business has come so far, so fast. And none have the seemingly blue-sky potential for limitless growth. More.

 

Lots of healing in Henrico

 

From ChapStick to Robitussin, the local Wyeth plant hums

 

 

by John Reid Blackwell

Times-Dispatch Staff Writer

It takes a lot of ChapStick to keep the world's lip balm fanatics happy.

Never fear. The sole source of all the world's ChapStick -- the Wyeth factory in eastern Henrico County -- can churn out about 165 million sticks a year.

ChapStick is one of several well-known consumer health products made at the plant on Darbytown Road, which employs about 700 people.

Wyeth has spent millions of dollars in recent years upgrading the plant to improve its efficiency.  

Millions of Robitussin bottles zip through the production line each year at the Wyeth pharmaceutical plant on Darbytown Road . Photo By: LINDY KEAST RODMAN/ TIMES-DISPATCH

 

For good reason. The plant and the company's Richmond area operations are key to Wyeth's $2.7 billion consumer health-care business. More.

 

 

Anthrax Hunters

Richmond's Commonwealth Biotechnologies played a key role in helping the FBI track down the anthrax killer who panicked Washington, D.C., in the dark days of 2001. 

 

Commonwealth Biotechnologies, Inc., a contract research organization specializing in biotechnology discovery, has disclosed that it was a key laboratory in developing the DNA forensics methods used to identify the source of the 2001 anthrax letter attacks that panicked Washington, D.C.

 

In the days following Sept. 11, CBI carried out thousands of tests over the course of the investigation into who mailed the anthrax-laden letters that killed five and sickened 17. The company had been under a non-disclosure agreement at the time and only now has been in a legal position to reveal its role in the investigation.

 

When the attacks occurred in September and October 2001, CBI scientists were actively engaged in research to detect and analyze biothreat agents in environmental and biodefense samples. Shortly after the start of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's anthrax investigation, CBI scientists began working to find suitable forensic markers that could differentiate laboratory Ames strains from the Ames anthrax used in the 2001 mailings. (R'Biz, Sept. 23, 2008) More.

 

 

 

Insmed Pushes Congress for Regulatory Reform

 

Richmond biotech company explains to Congress the difference between chemical and biotech drugs in effort to open up competition and save consumers money.

 

 

It looks like Insmed’s investment in P.R. is paying off. The Richmond biotech company, which is lobbying Congress to overhaul intellectual property rights governing biotech-generated drugs, garnered a positive profile yesterday in the Washington Post.

 

Post writer Kendra Marr walked readers through the complex arguments presented by Insmed CEO Geoffrey Allan, who is trying to educate Congress about the difference between chemical and biologic drugs. By acting upon that distinction, Congress could save consumers billions of dollars yearly in drug costs.

Chemical drugs are small, relatively simple chemical compounds that are easily mass produced; it is easy to ascertain if generic versions are identical to the original. Biologics are gigantic organic molecules produced by biotech companies from living cells, which are very difficult for a competitor to replicate exactly. Even so, competitors can devise compounds that are “biosimilar,” meaning that they have the same biological effect, or are “bioequivalent.” (R'Biz, August 14, 2008) More.

 

News

 

Business

 

 

Bostwick Laboratories' Seattle-based Bostwick Therapeutics division has received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to initiate a clinical trial examining the potential of a novel combination of freezing tumors and injecting "virgin" dendritic cells into them as a treatment for certain types of prostate cancer. (Sept. 5, 2008) More.

 

Commonwealth Biotechnologies, Inc., a provider of contract biotech research services, has selected China Medical City, a technology park outside Shanghai, as the location for its Venturepharm (Asia) joint venture. (Sept. 3, 2008) More.

 

Star Scientific, a Chester-based developer of a process for eliminating cancer-causing nitrosamines from tobacco, stands to recover up to $1 billion in a patent infringement suit against RJ Reynolds Tobacco. Star contends that Reynolds and other tobacco companies infringed upon its intellectual property by using the process. (August 27, 2008) More.

 

Owens & Minor, a national distributor of medical and surgical supplies, has agreed to acquire The Burrows Company, the largest independently owned medical supply distributor in the country. Owens & Minor will pay $30.2 million for the Chicago-based company, and will assume its debt. (August 20, 2008) More.

 

Henrico Doctors' Hospital performed last month the first one-incision laparoscopic procedure ever in the Mid-Atlantic States Region. The one-incision gallbladder removal was performed by making a single small incision hidden within the navel.

(August 8, 2008) More.

 

The Massey Cancer Center and the VCU Institute of Molecular Medicine have developed a chemoprevention gene therapy for preventing and treating pancreatic cancer, one of the most lethal and treatment-resistant forms of cancer. (August 7, 2008) More.

 

Commonwealth Biotechnologies, Inc., has raised $500,000 in cash and 2.2 million shares of Venturepharm Laboratories Inc. stock, worth $500,000 on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, through the sale of 463,000 shares of CBI stock, subject to a $1 million put right, to Venturepharm. (July 9, 2008) More.

 

The Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center has performed the Richmond area's first da Vinci sacrocolpopexy, a minimally invasive surgical procedure designed to correct pelvic organ prolapse. (July 2, 2008) More.

Commonwealth Biotechnologies, Inc., has expanded into Japan through its Venturepharm Asia joint venture. The company's new Tokyo office will focus on business development and customer service to the Japanese pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry. (June 17, 2008 ) More. 

 

Research

 

 

Virginia Commonwealth University researchers have demonstrated that Computed Tomographic Colonography, also known as virtual colonoscopy, has a high rate of accuracy in detecting colorectal cancer. The technology is less invasive than conventional colonoscopies. (Sept. 19, 2008) More.

 

The Massey Cancer Center has opened a National Cancer Institute (NCI)- sponsored, phase II clinical study for certain sub-types of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The study is based on research suggesting that combining two recently approved drugs that have shown effectiveness in certain blood cancers may help patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, or mantle cell lymphoma. (August 26, 2008) More.

 

Virginia Common- wealth University is part of a international research team that received a $2.8 million grant to identify genetic variants that impact the risk of recurrent major depression. (July 29, 2008) More.

 

Insmed Inc., a developer of generic drugs, says it has demonstrated the bioequivalence of INS -19, a protein made by the company, with Neupogen, an FDA-approved product for the treatment of neutropenia. Said CEO Geoffrey Allan: "These results are very exciting, as they represent Insmed's ability to replicate a protein product, to bring that product rapidly through the clinic and to demonstrate clear bioequivalence to the innovator drug." (July 11, 2008) More.

 

Virginia Common- wealth University’s Reanimation, Engineering and Shock Center, VCURES, announced today it has been awarded a three-year, $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Army to study new technologies for optimizing wound healing and limiting wound infections. (July 2, 2008) More.