“We are poised to dominate this field:” Sen. Toomey on biotech; PA, MN Congressmen want new medical device tax repealed [VIDEO]

Sen. Toomey talks to Rep. Paulsen after the press conference. Rep. Meehan in the background.

As if the Obama Administration’s healthcare bill —The Affordable Care Act — wasn’t under enough fire this week with the start of Supreme Court hearings yesterday, medical technology trade organization AdvaMed held a press conference with congressmen from Pennsylvania and Minnesota to call for the repeal of the medical device tax instated by the bill and herald the release of a new report that benchmarks the competitiveness of the medical technology industry in the United States.

U.S. Senator Pat Toomey (PA), U.S. Rep. Jim Gerlach (6th-PA), U.S. Rep. Pat Meehan (7th-PA), Co-chair of the Congressional Med Tech Caucus U.S. Rep. Erik Paulsen (3rd-MN), and U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent (15th-PA) joined the University City Science Center’s Stephen Tang, David Nexon of AdvaMed and other leaders of the Pennsylvania bio tech industry at Quorum to discuss the negative impact the new 2.3 percent tax would have on U.S. competitiveness in the global biotech market.

The tax, which is scheduled to take effect in 2013, could apply to a range of medical devices from retail products like hearing aids to advanced medical technology, like MRIs, according to an AdvaMed press release. AdvaMed estimates the tax could result in the loss of up to 43,ooo jobs across the United States and views the tax as a threat to America’s competitiveness in the global medical technology market.

“Now our tax system is so uncompetitive for high-tech manufacturing industries like ours that the taxes our government applies to activities conducted in the U.S. are two and a half times higher than taxes foreign government levy on those same activities abroad,” said Nexon.

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pureNANO Technologies will be ‘the Intel of nanotechnology,’ power flat-screens and solar panels of future: CEO Lev Davidson

pureNANO leaders: CEO Lev Davidson and Eric Borguet

If you want to talk about the Philadelphia region’s distinction for startups, it lies in the slice of life sciences called nanotechnology, says Lev Davidson.

Davidson is the CEO and co-founder of pureNANO Technologies, which produces proprietary, ultra-pure carbon nanotubes said to be some 50,000 times narrower than a human hair and 100 times stronger than steel.

How do you make money on really tiny tubes?: by producing “the world’s most energy efficient flat-panel displays, high-performance flexible thin-film solar cells and advanced mobile water filtration systems,” boasts the company’s promotional materials.

“pureNANO will be the Intel of nanotechnology by providing the material that will enable technologies which will fundamentally disrupt innumerable industries,” said Davidson, 28, who lives in Center City and grew up in Lafayette Hill, Montgomery County. “We will do for nanotech what the Intels of the world did for computing.”

To start, in May, the company took top honors and $125,000 in cash, prizes and services at Temple University’s Fox School of Business 13th annual Be Your Own Boss Bowl. With co-founder, chief scientist and Dublin-native Eric Borguet, 48, pureNANO was also a standout in the last GoodCompany Ventures incubation class.

That’s a good start but not yet the global disruption that Davidson is seeking. So what’s next?

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NextDocs CEO Zikria Syed: ‘rapid growth’ in a niche life sciences market from King of Prussia

Beyond the bubble, a technology company of stability and promise is probably solving an old problem with new solutions.

Zikria Syed

And that’s how Zikria Syed describes his King of Prussia-based company NextDocs, a Microsoft SharePoint-based company specializing in the life sciences that was called last month Microsoft’s best partner in that industry.

Think of the company like this: a smattering of info products that walk pharmaceutical and biotech companies through their varied, highly-technical compliance processes, often involving the Food and Drug Administration or its equivalent abroad.

CEO and co-founder Syed says, with operations in six countries and projected $15 million in revenue for 2011, NextDocs is seeing all the growth he could have imagined and more.

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Vascular Magnetics, a startup, spawns out of Children’s Hospital

Vascular's treatment, displayed on the left, coats artery walls with iron-infused medicine nanoparticles (in red), compared to existing treatment on the right. By zooming, one can see only small red areas of medicine in existing treatment.

Updated Tue., July 19: Updated in response to comment from Woodward: “We don’t use a stent coated with medicine – we use a temporary, catheter-borne targeting device made of the superparamagnetic steel. In the magnetic field, this device develops gradients which force the drug-loaded nanoparticles into the arterial wall. The nanoparticles are delivered through the same catheter that carries the targeting device,” he wrote in an email.

Folks with Peripheral Artery Disease, a circulation disorder that affects more than 27 million older adults in North America and Europe, often have pain involved with simple tasks such as walking.

Stent-based solutions that treat the disease, which force open arteries and release medicines into the passageways to prevent reblockage, are only temporary. The treatments allow reblockage to occur in about 50 percent of cases after the first year.

But a startup company spun out of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia says it has created a new system of treatment that does a better job, and might have a future in stem cell research.

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Temple University physicist can thin human blood with a magnetic field to fight heart attacks

Rongjia Tao

Powerful news from Temple University that could help prevent heart attacks:

If a person’s blood becomes too thick it can damage blood vessels and increase the risk of heart attacks. But a Temple University physicist has discovered that he can thin the human blood by subjecting it to a magnetic field. Rongjia Tao, professor and chair of physics at Temple University, has pioneered the use of electric or magnetic fields to decrease the viscosity of oil in engines and pipelines. Now, he is using the same magnetic fields to thin human blood in the circulation system.

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In 2008, Tao developed a mechanism that uses an electrical field to boost fuel efficiency, which has begun drawing licensing fees.

Steve Tang testifies on life sciences importance to U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee

University City Science Center CEO Steve Tang today highlighted the importance of the life sciences as an economic driver during his testimony at a hearing of the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee.

PRESS RELEASE [PDF]: During his remarks, Tang described the history and mission of the Science Center, the nation’s oldest and largest urban research park, and its contributions to the Greater Philadelphia economy. “More than 350 companies have passed through our doors since we were founded in 1963.The 93 that remain in the Greater Philadelphia region account for over $9 billion of sales and 15,000 current direct jobs. These jobs pay an average of $89,000 per year—a remarkable figure, especially in today’s economy,” he explained.

Yet, he noted, “The life sciences industry does more than create well-paying jobs. Scientists and researchers are dramatically improving treatments, therapeutics and ultimately patient care and quality of life.”

Tang pointed to the Science Center’s innovative QED Proof of Concept funding program, which pulls technologies out of the lab and into the marketplace by pairing scientific researchers with experienced business advisors, as an example of regional collaboration. “At the Science Center, we firmly believe that our multi-institutional QED program is a unique and model ‘public-private partnership’ that can be replicated across the nation to help promising ventures cross the ‘Valley of Death’ in funding,” he said. MORE [PDF]

Tang also expressed his support for the proposed tax credit-based Life Sciences Jobs and Investment Act, a measure also supported by Pennsylvania Bio.

To watch his testimony, go here, where he is introduced at 34:40 into the video.

Earlier this month, the Science Center announced that Tang had been named to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s new Innovation Advisory Board, which also includes Natalia Olson-Urtecho of Center City based business development firm EG.

Rajat Ghosh: ‘Philly’s like a playground,’ says Canadian-born UPenn breast cancer researcher

Rajat Ghosh got his PhD in quantum physics. But he’s not spending spending his days pondering theoretical abstractions. Instead, he’s found a very practical and important application of his work: early detection of breast cancer.

On any given day, Rajat may find himself programming MRI machines in C, tangling with string theory equations, or using nitrous oxide and a blowtorch to pressurize liquids. Thanks to his physics research, the signal strength of MRI scanners can be boosted by a factor of a million – though only for a short amount of time.

The diversity Rajat loves in his work is also what he loves about Philly.

Since moving last August, the Penn researcher has joined the Capoeira community (a Brazilian martial art set to music), found a core group of friends through the Network of Indian Professionals and attended many Fourth Wall Arts salons. [Full Disclosure: This author is a board member of Network of Indian Professionals.]

Read on to see why this Canadian-born researcher moved to Philadelphia, and what restaurants the former bartender and self-proclaimed foodie enjoys.

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Texting saving lives in Africa, High-speed rail video and other Links

How Texting Is Protecting People in Africa [GSK blog] — GlaxoSmithKline

Valley Forge man takes on Google [NewsWorks] — WHYY gives Gabe Weinberg of Duck Duck Go the love.

DB Schenker moves area operations to Philadelphia [Philadelphia Business Journal] — “DB Schenker, an international transportation and logistics company, has relocated regional operations to Philadelphia, bringing 130 employees”

University City Science Center adds two tenants [Philadelphia Business Journal] — Adaptimmune LLC and Optofluidics

WorldGate CEO and CFO resign amid cash squeeze [Philly Inc: Inquirer] – “Video-phone maker WorldGate Communications Inc. is once again facing a cash crunch and has responded by beginning to cut its workforce by 65 percent.”

Pennsylvania Bio awards Wednesday in Philadelphia [Philadelphia Business Journal]

Philadelphia Soul opener to be a real tweet [Philadelphia Business Journal] — Arena football leveraged league-endorsed social media chatter during the opener

The Regional Planning Association put together a video, seen below, on the importance of investing in high-speed rail, featuring interviews with many different parties including Paul Levy, President and CEO of Center City District.

Why Build High-Speed Rail in the Northeast? from Regional Plan Association on Vimeo.

Shop Talk: Proton Media thinks your workflow is better in 3D

A screengrab of Protosphere, the company's flagship product.

If you work at a large corporation and think your job sucks, Proton Media CEO Ron Burns sympathizes with you.

“Most people spend their lives in front of their inbox,” he says. “The lives of the workers of these large organization can be rather inhumane.”

Proton Media, based in Landsdale, has been fighting inbox-based workflows through its Second Life-style software that acts as a meeting room for large companies. The software helps companies facilitate collaboration and cut down on unnecessary travel expenses. Specifically, life sciences and gas companies.

“Their entire workflow has revolved around files and folders. Not humans,” he says.

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Shop Talk: Interphase Systems CEO John Biglin on Ready-IT BioPharma

A year ago, John Biglin, the CEO of Interphase Systems, was talking to the CFO of an emerging Center City pharmaceutical company.

The CFO, intent on keeping in order the financial house of his blue-chip invested life sciences startup, had a problem.

“Is it normal that sometimes you don’t get e-mails, or e-mails take a couple days to arrive or when you do get them, they come in triplicate?” Biglin remembers the CFO asking.

John Biglin

“Our IT has been cobbled together by an employee or by his nephew or uncle,” Biglin recalls the CFO and others in his position saying. “Someone just shows up in a truck and sets stuff up in our office. If the FDA came in here and we say we can’t produce this lab data or that, we are out of business.”

The CFO talked about multiple versions of contracts lost, emergency Best Buy trips for whatever hardware is on sale and documents that are never seen again.

That conversation last January set into motion the long-discussed plans for Interphase, which does 60 percent of its business in the life sciences, to develop a turn-key, managed IT platform targeted for small and medium-sized emerging pharmaceutical and biomedical companies that need top-level security, guaranteed disaster recovery, FDA compliance and flexibility. Biglin says that Ready-IT BioPharma, which launched late last month, just might be the only system of its kind.

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