OBI & OTRADI 2018 End of Year Newsletter

Happy Holidays from the OBI! We hope you have a splendid 2019!

Thank you for your support of OBI/OTRADI over the past year! One of our biggest highlights of 2018 was celebrating the 10-Year Anniversary of OTRADI and the 5-Year Anniversary of our Oregon Bioscience Incubator (OBI) with a cruise aboard the Portland Spirit that attracted 250 celebrants. We’re proud to report that this anniversary celebration and a retrospective of our startups’ achievements was featured in a wonderful write-up in the Portland Business Journal.

NOTE: If you do not have full access to the Portland Business Journal, click here for a PDF of this article.

We were proud to have PIE and Built Oregon complete the video above about the OBI and our startups in 2018.

Above you can see the host of entrepreneurial programs the OBI hosted in 2018 along with logos of our wonderful sponsors and partners. Thank you to all of our partners and sponsors for supporting our programming and helping us make 2018 the best year yet for entrepreneurial programs and outreach at the OBI!

OBI/OTRADI BIG WINS FROM 2018

Portland’s biotech community finally gets its wish: a new lab-office building in the growing Portland IQ hub. OBI is happy to be partnering with Summit Development to make this exciting new space a success.

OBI/OTRADI’s Executive Director, Jennifer Fox, represented Oregon and promoted more robust funding for scientific research and STEAM education during the national Bio Fly-In Event in Washington DC.

OBI/OTRADI’s Executive Director, Jennifer Fox, represented Oregon at Digital Health World Congress in London.

In 2018 we redesigned our OBI website to be more user-friendly and helpful. Check out our new design!

2018 OBI Client Company Wins

Aronora’s anti-inflammatory and antithrombotic biological drug candidate, AB023 (xisomab 3G3), has completed an FDA phase 1 clinical trial.
Aronora’s anti-inflammatory and antithrombotic biological drug candidate, AB002 (E-WE thrombin, proCase), has received Investigational New Drug (IND) approval from the FDA.
The FDA granted Aronora’s biological drug candidate, AB002, Fast Track designation. This Fast Track designation allows for drug candidates to qualify for accelerated (Ph I & Ph II) drug development and evaluation. See article here.

BV Biomed was a featured company in BioInitium Advisory’s 2018 report on the worldwide market in MS.

Hemex Health was awarded a $100,000 SBIR matching grant from Business Oregon to complement a 2017 Phase II SBIR from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for their malaria diagnostic.
Hemex Health and partners took first place out of 122 companies to win a $300K grant from the Vodafone Foundation 2018 Wireless Innovation Project. The funds will be used to establish a mobile health system for malaria and sickle cell in Kano Nigeria.
Hemex Health completed the final design of their diagnostic platform and is in the manufacturing handoff process. They have signed with a major distribution partner in India.
Hemex Health was awarded 3 NIH SBIR awards:
1. $1.725M fast-track SBIR award from the National Heart, Blood and Lung Institute for to advance their sickle cell test.
2. $225K SBIR contract from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to enable their malaria diagnostic to distinguish between the two most common forms of malaria and to further lower their limit of malaria detection.
3. $225K award from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases to adapt their device to identify and measure HbA1C (glycosylated hemoglobin), which is an indicator of diabetes.
Hemex Health was featured in three articles:
1. Hemex Health was accepted into the Novartis Biome as one of their five initial companies.
2. Hemex Health was featured in MedGadget for their Point-of-Care Diagnostic for Sickle Cell Disease and Malaria.
3. Hemex Health was featured in Next Billion – Using Mobile Technology to Fight Disease: Three Tips for Social Startups in the Developing World.
Hemex Health started a new subsidiary, HemexDx, in India, where the initial release of the product will take place.
Hemex Health’s sickle cell diagnostic technology “microchip electrophoresis (TM)” won a USPTO Patents for Humanity Honorable Mention.
Hemex Health presented posters of their research studies at MHSRS (Military Health System Research Symposium), ASTMH (American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene), and presented this December at ASH (American Society of Hematology).

Madorra was awarded a $100,000 SBIR matching grant from Business Oregon.
Madorra was awarded a $2.3M Fast-track SBIR grant from the NIH to further develop their cutting-edge women’s health medical device.
Madorra closed the first tranche of their Series A raise. They also received IRB approval for their Human Factors study.

OmnEcoil Instruments’ device has benefited from three grant awards; an NSF Phase I SBIR grant ($225K), an ONAMI Gap grant ($250K) and a Murdock Trust grant ($120K).

Sirona Dx launched a novel urine-based bladder cancer assay with PD-L1 quantification based on IncellDx’s single cell immuno-oncology/PD-L1 technology. Press release article.

Sonivate finalized product design including Dual-Array Probe, Graphical User Interface (GUI) and all board electronics.
System (Microsoft tablet) demonstration for military medical leadership in August 2018.
Two provisional patents filed; final GUI Design Patent filed.
Units for safety testing and verification & validation produced and assembled.
Biocompatibility testing initiated.
Safety testing planned (i.e. 60601, EMI, EMC, acoustic output, water/dust ingress).
Raised $1.2 million.

StoneStable, Inc. successfully completed their first mouse experiments.
StoneStable, Inc. was awarded a $50,000 grant from Business Oregon.

SUTUREGARD Medical completed a successful human use clinical trial and was issued a key patent (US patent # 10,064,616 – Variable Stiffness Suture Bridges Compatible with Various Suture Patterns”) for their device.
SUTUREGARD Medical won the FoundersLive Pitch competition in October.
SUTUREGARD Medical registered with the FDA.
SUTUREGARD Medical launched sales in November at the Fundamentals of Mohs Surgery conference. They sold 70 devices in their first week of sales alone.