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| 04-24-2003 | Previous edition: 04-23-2003 |
        
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Printer-friendly version Purdue hosts competition for life science businesses
Senior Writer A team associated with Rochester University and the University of California at Berkley won $50,000 in the last round of the first Purdue Life Sciences Business Plan Competition. Eight finalist teams presented their bioscience startup companies from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday in the North Ballroom of the Purdue Memorial Union as part of the last round of the competition. Winners of the competition were announced during a banquet at the end of the evening. Each team, including the first-place team — Iris AO, an optical technology company, had 45 minutes to present their business plans to a panel of judges. The judging panel, which was made up of venture capitalists, health industry professionals, academics and industry service providers, chose Iris AO as the winning company because of the company's interesting technology and broad application capabilities, said Peter Kleinhenz, a judge from CID Equity Partners. Five additional teams won cash prizes during the competition. Medical Reporting Solutions, a company that plans to search and code free-text medical documents in relational databases, is associated with Indiana University-Purdue University and won a second-place prize of $20,000. Nanstring Technologies, which is associated with the University of Washington and plans to help reduce the cost of biochemist pharmaceuticals won a third-place prize of $15,000. Hypogen, a University of Virginia associate that discovered a gene polymorphism that it believes is largely responsible for hypertension and salt sensitivity, won a fourth-place prize of $7,500. Iterative Theropeutics, a company that developed an antibody for therapeutics, is associated with the University of Chicago and won a fifth-place prize of $5,000. Monocle Technologies, a Purdue associate that plans to design and process monitoring equipment for the pharmaceutical industry, won sixth place of $2,500. BioVitesse and Versachrom, both associated with Purdue, were awarded finalist trophies. "We knew the business plans were solid, and the live business presentations complemented that," said Don Blewett, associate director of the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship. "It was great." Cash prizes were provided through Purdue's Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship and corporate sponsorship. The top three finishers also received $24,000 worth of in-kind legal and financial services. The top Indiana entry, Medical Reporting Solutions, will receive $20,000 from the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership and the Indiana Health Industry Forum, in addition its $20,000 second place prize. This was the first year for the competition, which began as an expansion of the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship's business plan competition. It will now be a yearly event. "I think we consider (the competition) a grand success," Blewett said. Printer-friendly version |
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