The Rice Alliance for Technology & Entrepreneurship of Rice University recently announced the top ten most promising life science technology companies at last week’s successful 6th Annual Life Science Technology Venture Forum in Houston.

Emerging life science companies showcased their new ventures for an audience of more than 425 attendees, including: investors; venture capitalists; industry representatives; business leaders; advisors/mentors; service providers; and entrepreneurs. 

The event culminated in an announcement of the Most Promising Life Science Technology Companies chosen from 34 presenting companies.  The winners were chosen based on the companies’ elevator pitch presentations and were selected by a hand-picked judging panel made up of investors and business leaders. 

Following are the winning companies:

Azaya Therapeutics is an emerging nanotherapy company with a novel technology platform designed to significantly improve the efficacy and safety of water insoluble pharmaceutical agents. 

Frio Pharmaceuticals is developing a portfolio of pharmaceutical mouth rinses to decrease bacterial bioburden in the oral cavity, reduce chronic inflammation, and subsequently improve systemic health.

Microtransponder has a technology portfolio that consists of a wireless micro-system that can interface with peripheral nerves and a host of biochemical micro/nano-sensors.
  
Monebo Technologies, Inc. is a medical technology company which has developed technology solutions that monitor, assess, and interpret the electrical activity of the heart.

Neurobiotex, Inc. is a science based company specializing in discovery and intervention in the area of zinc in biology.

OrthoAccel Technologies, Inc. designs, develops, markets, and sells an orthodontics device that cuts treatment time for braces in half and works in combination with all existing orthodontic bracket technologies.

Pulmotect, LLC is developing ALIIS (Aerosolized Lung Innate Immune Stimulant) as a novel therapeutic that locally activates the innate immune system to protect against inhaled infections.

Regenetech, Inc. has extended NASA-invented technology to produce large number of adult stem cells in about seven days form peripheral blood or umbilical cord blood.

ThromboVision, Inc. provides easy-to-use, rapid-response, cost-effective and versatile point-of-care clinical diagnostic discoveries that advance medical diagnosis.

Visualase, Inc. is focused on product development, clinical evaluations, manufacturing, and marketing of advanced laser and image-guided technologies for minimally invasive thermal ablation markets.

Keynote speakers were B.J. Bormann, Ph.D., Vice President of Pfizer Global R&D; John Mendelsohn, M.D., President, UT M.D. Anderson Cancer Center; and Nancy Chang, Ph.D., Co-founder and Chairman, Tanox, Inc. Panelists included eight leading venture capitalists and investors.

The event was underwritten by Baker Botts and sponsored by Baker & McKenzie and Winstead. The program was hosted by the Rice Alliance and co-hosted by the UT MD Anderson Cancer Center and held at Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management at Rice University.

Originally posted on Forbes.

SAN ANTONIO, TX, May 31—Azaya Therapeutics, Inc., today announced the election of Dr. Ze’ev Shaked to its Board of Directors. Dr. Shaked has extensive managerial and pharmaceutical product development experience in commercializing new drug products. He most recently was President and CEO of Spherics, Inc., where he transformed the company into a product-driven company with an attractive product pipeline, and where he raised more than $25 million from the venture capital industry.

Prior to Spherics, Dr. Shaked was Chief Operating Officer of ILEX Oncology, Inc., in San Antonio, Texas. He was instrumental in ILEX obtaining ownership and FDA approval for CAMPATH and Clolar, two of its commercialized products. In addition, Dr. Shaked has held a number of senior research and development and corporate management positions at ImmuLogic Pharmaceutical Corporation, Berlex Biosciences, Inc., Triton Biosciences, Inc., CODON Corporation, and Chiron Corporation. He obtained his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry and Applied Biochemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“Ze’ev Shaked has an outstanding track record in the biopharmaceutical industry and in overseeing the development of new drugs,” said John Kerr, chairman of the board of Azaya. “His wealth of scientific experience will be invaluable in guiding the overall development of Azaya’s pipeline of products.”

About Azaya
Azaya Therapeutics, Inc., is an emerging nanotherapy company with an innovative technology platform—Protein Stabilized Nanoparticles—(PSNTM) designed to significantly improve the efficacy and safety of water insoluble pharmaceutical agents. Azaya is initially building an in-house pipeline of safer and more efficacious nanoparticle chemotherapy drug products. Azaya was granted a patent on this technology in February 2007.

Azaya Therapeutics received notice from the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) that two abstracts for presentation have been accepted. The presentations are titled; 1. Comparative Human Tumor Xenograft Study of ATI-1123 (Docetaxel) Azaya Therapeutics Protein Stabilized Nanoparticle (PSN™) Technology and Single Agent Docetaxel, 2. Pharmacokinetic Study of ATI-1123 (Docetaxel) Azaya Therapeutics Protein stabilized Nanoparticle Technology (PSN™).

Azaya Therapeutics is an emerging biopharmaceutical company located in San Antonio, Texas with a focus on product development utilizing their unique PSNTM Nanotechnology. Their first product focuses on the improvement of existing chemotherapies, making them safer and more effective.

If you would like to learn more about the company contact Azaya Therapeutics at (210) 341-6600.

Azaya Therapeutics has received a Notice of Allowance dated November 21, 2006 from the US Patent and Trademark Office allowing the issuance of the Azaya patent application 10/703,187 titled Protein-Stabilized Liposomal Formulations of Pharmaceutical Agents. This is the core technology patent for Azaya and we expect issuance of this patent in February 2007. This allows Azaya to further develop its primary product ATI-1123 and various opportunities utilizing to the full extent the PSN Technology.

• Simplified manufacturing process—Single step manufacturing process of protein stabilized Nanoparticle (outlined below)
• Broad scope—PSN Technology has the dynamic scope of encapsulate a large array of water insoluble drugs
• Early discovery—PSN Technology can be used as an alternative formulation method to further explore compounds with poor water solubility (prospective drugs that would otherwise not be developed)

If you would like further information about the company contact Azaya Therapeutics at (210) 341-6600.

June 23, 2006, San Antonio Business Journal—Azaya Therapeutics Inc. has completed a new round of financing from private investors that company president and CEO Michael T. Dwyer says will enable the San Antonio firm to strengthen its role in the fight against cancer and other diseases.

Dwyer says the latest $1 million shot in the arm will be used to advance pre-clinical testing, expand lab space, acquire additional lab equipment and add more chemists.

Azaya is currently working to improve the delivery of existing drugs.
At some point, it may look to develop new drugs, too.

Right now, company officials are working to apply Azaya’s proprietary protein stabilized liposomes (PSL) nanotechnology to produce “safer and more efficacious” formulations of chemotherapeutics for the treatment of cancer.

Their three-pronged plan is to:

• License the technology;
• Reformulate marketed products;
• Develop new chemotherapy products.

Dwyer says the latest round of funding takes the company closer to achieving those goals.

&ldqup;Our first two product candidates are based on marketed chemotherapeutics that have well-established efficacy against many types of cancer, and are among the largest-selling chemotherapeutics in the world,” Dwyer says. “This approach reduces the risk and associated costs of clinical development.”

Dwyer, while declining to name the investors, says, “This latest infusion of capital validates the potential of our strategy.”

New ground

ATI-1123 is Azaya’s reformulation of docetaxel, which is used for the treatment of breast, prostate, lung, stomach and other cancers.

Branded as Taxotere by Sanofi-Aventis, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, Azaya is working to reformulate the drug via its PSL technology.

So far, according to company officials, pre-clinical studies involving human tumor xenografts in mice have demonstrated that the PSL formulation of ATI-1123 enables delivery of the drug at increased dosing levels compared to the approved formulation of Taxotere.

The result, company officials say, is a corresponding increase in anti-tumor activity.

Azaya plans to initiate a Phase I clinical trial of ATI-1123 in 2007.

The company’s second product candidate, ATI-1150, is a PSL-based formulation of SN-38, the highly toxic active ingredient in the drug Camptothecin, which is widely used to treat a variety of adult tumors.

Dwyer says Azaya is currently working to complete pre-clinical studies of ATI-1150 and begin a Phase I clinical trial sometime next year.

Both drugs, Dwyer says, are being tested at the Cancer Therapy & Research Center’s Institute for Drug Development in San Antonio.

That entity, Dwyer reminds, conducts the largest oncology Phase I clinical drug trials program in the world.

Lack of respect

Dwyer was formerly an executive vice president with San Antonio-based Ilex Oncology before that company was acquired by Genzyme, which is based in Cambridge, Mass.

He says the latest funding represents “another step in a fairly long journey.”

Dwyer says the money is “critical” because Azaya co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Chandra Singh has had to work with limited resources for some time.

But because of the new money, workers are already scurrying to expand and improve Singh’s laboratory facilities.

Dwyer says the company is preparing to seek out an even greater infusion of capital in the months ahead.
But getting outside money will not be easy.

Both Dwyer and Singh suggest there are West Coast and East Coast biases against San Antonio and Texas when it comes to the biomedical industry.

Dwyer says company officials visited the East Coast last summer where they had several exploratory meetings with venture capitalists about raising larger amounts of money to help move the company forward.

“Inevitably, we were asked, ‘Why would you be doing this (kind of work) in San Antonio?’” Dwyer points out. “Some of the people up in the Northeast believe the world revolves around them.”

Dwyer says in one meeting Azaya officials were asked if they would move the company to Boston.

Their answer: Absolutely not.

“Part of the problem is that people don’t understand the resources we have (in San Antonio),” Dwyer explains. “We have the fundamental resources here to allow a company like us to develop product and bring it to market.”

Singh agrees that San Antonio and Texas have a ways to go to prove their worthiness to the bankrollers on both coasts.

“When you go to the East Coast or West Coast,” Singh says, “those people never think that Texas can come up with the exciting technologies. I think that is the pervasive belief.”

So Singh says he is constantly trying to remind potential financial backers that “technology is about the people, not the place.”

Says Singh, “We will open their eyes.”

Azaya Therapeutics Inc.

What: Biotechnology and drug delivery company that is applying its proprietary protein stabilized liposomes (PSL) nanotechnology to produce targeted, safer and more effective formulations of chemotherapies for the treatment of cancer 
Where: Company is based in San Antonio 
Who: Michael T. Dwyer, President; Dr. Chandra Singh, co-founder and chief scientific officer

May 5, 2006, San Antonio Business Journal—Three local companies received a total of $13 million in venture capital investment during the first quarter of this year, according to a national survey and Business Journal research.

In addition, two other local firms landed almost $1.5 million from private angel investors

The venture capital investments mark an increase in such funding in the Alamo City over the first quarter of 2005, when only locally based Rackspace Managed Hosting secured a venture deal, valued at $9.6 million.

This time around, the story is a little different.

Meximerica Media, a distributor of several daily Spanish language newspapers in Texas, received $3 million from Santa Monica, Calif.-based Rustic Canyon Partners and an undisclosed venture capital firm.

In addition, VidaCare Corp., a developer of a medical devices that provides fluids to trauma patients through the bone, received $5 million from Kistler Associates and Telegraph Hill Partners—both based in California.
Also, locally based BroadRamp Inc. received $5 million from a Bermuda-based fund called Venture Vest II to finance growth and expansion. Venture Vest is managed by New York-based Wafra Investment Advisory Group.

On the angel investment front, San Antonio-based biomed company Azaya Therapeutics Inc. raised $1 million from local private investors in the first quarter to continue its development of drug-delivery technology for chemotherapy.

Mike Dwyer, president and CEO of Azaya, says the idea behind the product will be to deliver the cancer treatment directly to tumors while increasing the dosage and safety of the medicine.

In addition, Casey Fox, CEO and chief technology officer of Biomedical Enterprises Inc. (BME), says the medical device company received $460,000 from private angel investors during this year’s first quarter.

The information for the first-quarter 2005 and 2006 venture capital deals was obtained from the Pricewaterhousecoopers, ThomsonVenture Economics, National Venture Capital Association MoneyTree Survey. However, the first-quarter 2006 survey did not pick up on the BroadRamp, Azaya or BME deals. The Business Journal obtained that information from its sources, including the San Antonio Technology Accelerator Initiative (SATAI).

Venture capital typically is provided by large funds seeking a high return on investment and an ownership stake in the firm.

Angel investors, by contrast, typically are high net-worth private individuals who generally want less control of a company and a less steep return on investment.

Growing interest

James Poage, president and CEO of tech-advocacy group SATAI, says there are other deals in the works here or that may have already been done that have not yet been reported.

This, he says, is proof that venture-capital investment is on the rise for the local market.

“VC investments in the fourth quarter (of last year) and the first quarter (of this year) throughout the U.S. has been up in all stages,” Poage says. “In fact, SATAI has had more interest in the first quarter (of 2006) from very early stage private investors than I’ve seen since I’ve been here.”

The three main areas for investment, he says, have been biomedical drugs, biomedical devices and information assurance or technology.

The technology sector, he adds, is really starting to pick up steam again.

Michael Burke, president of San Antonio-based venture capital and management consulting firm MDB Capital Ventures, says what he has seen is an increase in interest and confidence of more private investors locally, especially in the technology sector.
He attributes this to the city’s solid economy and its ability to attract more large companies, like Toyota and Washington Mutual—both of which are in the process of rolling out major operations in the city.

“It’s an exciting time in San Antonio,” Burke says. “We’ve never seen more reason to be optimistic about the future on all fronts. We’ve seen the city grow into a world-class community.”

However, not everyone is seeing VC roses everywhere. Bruce Flohr, president of locally based Flohr Enterprises Inc., says not all types of investment have been on the increase, even if interest is on the rise.

First- and second-round venture-capital investing, Flohr contends, is not as high as later-stage VC investing. Flohr’s company pursues investment opportunities and was one of the first-round investors in VidaCare.

“We saw quite a bit of activity in 2002 through 2004. But I don’t think there’s that much going on right now as far as angel or first-round investing,” Flohr says.

As a member of the SATAI network, he says finding ways to attract more early stage and angel investing is at the top of the group’s list.

“We realize there’s a problem in that area, and we’re trying to figure out the answer,” he says.

Broader view

While San Antonio registered a bump in VC investing during the first quarter of this year, companies statewide did not fair as well in the field, compared to the first quarter of last year.

Texas companies attracted about $307.9 million in VC funding for roughly 45 deals in the first quarter of 2006.
This was down from $349.6 million received during the first quarter of 2005 for 44 deals, according to the Pricewaterhousecoopers, ThomsonVenture Economics, National Venture Capital Association MoneyTree Survey.

For the first quarter of 2006, about $148.1 million went to Austin for some 20 deals; approximately $144.5 million for 20 deals in Dallas; and some $7.4 million for three deals in Houston, according to the survey.

At the national level, 761 VC deals were undertaken during the first quarter of this year involving some $5.6 billion, the survey shows.

This was a slight increase over the first quarter of 2005, when 710 investment deals attracted about $5 billion in venture capital.

The interest in liposome-encapsulated agents is based on the potential for improved delivery of poorly soluble drugs, enhanced and targeted tumor uptake and accumulation, reduction in chemical and enzymatic degradation, and an improvement in the toxicity profile of an agent.