Two Companies Awarded Funding
October 30, 2009
The Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority (KEDFA) today awarded two high-tech Kentucky companies, Louisville Bioscience, Inc., and Laboratory and BioDiagnostics, LLC, (LabDx), state funding of up to $250,000 each from the Cabinet for Economic Development’s High-Tech Investment Pool.
LabDx is employing technology to permit transferring lab results directly from the company’s new medical laboratory to customers’ electronic medical records systems. Their laboratory and reporting services will be marketed to physicians and medical facilities to help eliminate errors while improving reporting speed. LabDx is employing technology to permit transferring lab results directly from the company’s new medical laboratory to customers’ electronic medical records systems. Their laboratory and reporting services will be marketed to physicians and medical facilities to help eliminate errors while improving reporting speed.
Louisville Bioscience employs a proprietary lab technique that profiles a patient’s blood plasma proteins to help detect autoimmune and infectious diseases, as well as cancer in their early stages. The new platform technology is also expected to have other applications, including identifying biomarkers and targets for new drugs.
Louisville’s Potentia Pharmaceuticals inks deal
October 26, 2009
Potentia Pharmaceuticals signed a deal with Alcon Pharmaceuticals for licensing its drug candidate, POT-4, for use in macular degeneration. Terms of the deal are confidential, but Potentia Pharmaceuticals said it expects to receive hundreds of millions of dollars if the drug for age-related macular degenerationf the drug is approved for widespread use.
The deal announced Friday, gives Alcon licensing rights to the drug and an option to buy the Louisville company. Potentia will receive an undisclosed payment now, and is promised a series of payments if it achieves certain milestones including successfully completing a clinical trial and receiving FDA clearance.
The deal may be the largest ever signed by a Louisville biotech company and the largest coup to date for the University of Louisville’s efforts to establish a life-sciences industry here.
It would dwarf the city’s previous biggest life-sciences success story, the $21.4 million acquisition of Aptamera, a Louisville company that developed cancer drugs, by British company Antisoma.
Communications: Three avenues for growth
October 21, 2009
The following is another guest post in a series from Matthew Henderson and the folks at Peritus PR
Below are a few growth themes to consider. Some are new, others are tried and true:
Social Media: Social media is about strategy, not tools. The key to developing a successful social media platform is organic growth. Push your content out, share a wide variety on your profile / page to see what works. Social media means giving up control and letting others drive the conversation.
Here is a link to the top 50 social brands
Public Relations: The basic premise of strategic public relations (at least the proactive kind) is to do good works and get credit for it. Typically, the credit you get comes in the form of higher sales, more event participation, or increased traffic to your Web site – all measurable benefits tied back to your public relations efforts. But, PR is more than sending news releases when the need arises. Efforts should specifically target your key audiences—whether they’re consumers, executives, employees, the media, or the community at large. A long-term PR strategy can tell your story, capture your organization’s brand, initiatives, personality and values far into the future.
Public Policy: Always keep a keen eye to local, state, or federal legislation. Hopping onto the coat-tails of a massive policy push could pay big dividends, or help to further engage your target market. In addition, it’s also important to stop dangerous policy. For example, one of our current healthcare clients has concerns about the Medicare reimbursement rates under the proposed healthcare reform in congress. If enacted, Medicare reimbursements would be cut in half and devastate our client’s industry. Always be mindful of policy pitfalls and windfalls.
What are your thoughts on growth? Do you have a success story?
Lexington & Bowling Green featured as Best Cities to launch
October 14, 2009
Fortune Small Business Ranked the top 50 metros according to the following criteria: per capita income, hourly wages, workforce quality, crime rates, taxes and foreclosures.
Lexington was ranked 6th in the medium sized city category (number one was Huntsville, AL)
Bowling Green was ranked 12th in the small city category ( number one was Billings, MT)
What put Lexington and BG high in these rankings were that they graded in the middle on most categories, not a leader and not a laggard.
One of the negatives was tax climate. Kentucky was rated to have the 16th worst tax climate for business in the country
Company Profile: ASAP Analytical
October 7, 2009
Don Harris is the founder of ASAP Analytical. I put a few questions to him about his covington based company.
What is your company’s 30 second elevator pitch?
ASAP Analytical is helping crime labs worldwide win the war on illegal drugs. The new designer drugs are described as substances created by drug dealers to get around existing drug laws by using various degrees of molecular modification. The new IRD just introduced by ASAP Analytical allows the forensic chemist to look at the molecular structure of each new designer drug.
What has been your company’s funding & growth so far?
Conventional funding using banks and line of credit.
What is the outlook for your business in the next eighteen months?
Very good because we are filling a need in the industry.
What attracted you to entrepreneurship?
Saw an opportunity and went after my dream.
What have been the advantages and disadvantages of starting a high tech business in Kentucky?
The advantages has been the excellent support from the City of Covington & the Commonwealth. The only disadvantage has been finding qualified people.
