In our regularly occurring column entitled "The Pitch", we take pride in featuring early stage New York-based compa­nies that have significant potential for success. Recently, we had an opportunity to catch up with a few companies that have been seen previously in the pages of LabToWallStreet. Two have changed the land­scape of science and how it is conducted, one was recently acquired for its cutting edge technology. All three have carved out their place in the global industry in a short period of time.

Medidata Solutions

When we featured Medidata Solutions in the very first issue of LabToWallStreet (Winter 2002/2003), the NYC-based company was a two-and-a-half year old start-up out of Columbia just finding its footing. The EDC (electronic data capture) company began by offering an integrated suite of ASP-based solutions through a simple internet connection. They were proud to work with customers across therapeutic lines, had some VC money and growth was occurring at a clip of about 30 % quarter over quarter.

At the time we visited Medidata in their offices on Manhattan's East Side. CEO Tarek Sherif and CMO Ed Ikeguchi, MD shared a small back room. The 17 person staff occupied the remainder of the office and worked with the commotion and dust of cosmetic repairs as the space was transformed into "headquarters". What was most memorable was the fact that everyone was surprisingly upbeat despite the seemingly chaotic environment. Perhaps they knew something that outsiders were not yet aware of?

It was clear throughout the time we spent with Medidata's founders and executives that they shared their employees' excitement and positive outlook for the company. CEO Sherif anticipated substantial growth in the sector for Medidata as the adoption rate of EDC picked up. When we caught up with him recently it was evident his thoughts back in 2002 were on target…and perhaps he even under-played the possibilities to some extent.

Today Medidata Solutions is a global company with 175 employees and is viewed as being one of the top three service providers in the world of EDC and data management. In mid-2004 they opened offices in the UK with 12 employees and the company recently launched an office in Japan.

Sherif assured us that Medidata's headquarters will remain in NYC. He also mentioned that they are preparing the opening of a satellite office in Iselin, NJ this year.

The organic growth of Medidata Solutions has maintained a steady pace. The company is involved in clinical trials in over 80 countries for large and small biotech, big pharma and medical device manufacturers (a new area for Medidata). They now offer a 24x7 multi-language helpdesk to assist customers from around the globe.

The technology offering has expanded as well. According to Sherif, Medidata's model now goes well beyond the ASP foun­dation on which they started as they have entered the world of enterprise implementation of their technology. On a financial note, since 2002 Medidata has been cash flow neutral, revenues have grown x3 each year and new business has increased six-fold.

Looking forward the company intends to continue its plans to build out their product suite and maintain an aggressive global expansion agenda. Included in those plans is greater adaptation of Medidata's products through significant partnering.

Myomatrix Therapeutics

Myomatrix was featured in the Q1 2003 issue of LabToWallStreet. The following update was provided by execu­tives of the company.

Myomatrix Therapeutics began operations in 2001, founded with the goal to developing new therapeutics for clinically unmet

needs in chronic cardiovascular diseases. The company's founders were Lawrence Zisman and Shreefal Mehta who provide a dynamic mix with sound technical backgrounds and a good business acumen.

Lawrence Zisman has training in molecular biology and is a Board-certified cardiologist. His particular area of expertise is in heart failure, pulmonary hypertension, and cardiac trans-plantation; he is an internationally recognized investigator, and has published his research in well recognized journals such as Circulation and the Journal of Cardiac Failure.

Shreefal Mehta has a PhD in biomedical engineering, with a background in tissue engineering, some molecular biophysics and biomedical imaging areas, and has an MBA with experience in taking projects or products from concept, to the lab and to the clinic.

Myomatrix licensed in a key breakthrough technology from the State University of New York, that identified a new and exciting kinase target involved in heart failure, hypertension and other cardiovascular diseases. Myomatrix, funded by angel investors and its founders, then built up specialized capabilities for assaying new compounds that would inhibit this enzyme and potentially become a new class of drugs for more effective treatment of these cardiovascular diseases.

In late 2003, Myomatrix announced the launch of a research partnership with Cytopia Ltd of Melbourne,

Australia for the development of Cytopia's kinase inhibitors within cardiovascular diseases. Studies with Cytopia's compounds showed high potency and efficacy compared to existing known inhibitors and cellular studies were successfully completed in 2004. Further development progressed into merger discussions with Cytopia and the two com­panies reached an agreement in which Cytopia purchased Myomatrix assets, acquired its intellectual property and continued its operations at its Rensselaer labs. This acquisition and merger of operations was announced on 12 January 2005.

Cytopia is a Melbourne-based drug discovery company focused on the treatment of immune diseases, cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Cytopia specializes in discovering new drugs that can inhibit enzymes known as kinases, an exciting new class of drugs. It holds a worldwide exclusive license to a number of kinases which play a crucial role in activating cells of the immune system and certain cancers. Cytopia has developed proprietary computer software known as its Chemaphore Platform that enables the design of focused chemical libraries, high-throughput in silico screening, and the refinement of drug leads into drug candidates. This platform has proved to be superior to commercially available packages and is applicable to many different drug targets. Cytopia is rapidly building a pipeline of drug candidates for disorders such as Hormone Refractory Prostate Cancer,

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leukaemia, heart failure and other inflammatory disorders. Its lead anticancer compound arising out of its discovery engine is expected to enter first clinical testing in early 2005 in Australia and later in the year at the prestigious Cancer Research, UK.

Evident Technologies

In May of 2003, LabtoWallStreet wrote about Evident Technologies, a Troy, New York-based start-up company using quantum dots (nanometer sized semiconduc­tor nanocrystals) to produce new forms of fluorescent parti­cles for research in the life science field. The update that

follows was kindly submitted by Steven Talbot, Evident's VP of Marketing.

Evident is now the leading commercial source of quantum dots, working to create new materials and products in life sciences and many other fields. With hundreds of customers worldwide, Evident has grown from a small group of top scientists and researchers to a company of over thirty led by Clinton Ballinger, Ph.D., the company's CEO.

Ballinger refers to Evident as a company of "practical pioneers" whose focus on partnering and product development has led to its technical advancements and business growth. The Evident

team expanded its market reach with active product development contracts in night vision applications, in-vivo diagnostics, LEDs, solar cells, thermoelectrics, wear indicators and a host of other applications. The company's extended enterprise business model of partnering to make products is showing results. This approach allows Evident to focus on deepening its core competencies while expanding in several markets simultaneously. Building on its proprietary EviDot^™ technology (quantum dots that have been engineered with a protective coating), Evident has developed a growing line of products, particularly in the life sciences field.

In June of 2003, Evident began shipping its EviTags^™, luminescent quantum dot-based tagging labels that use water stable quantum dot nanoparticles with unique chemical and optical characteristics. EviTag quantum dots are coated with a proprietary molecular complex making them ready for coupling or bioconjugating to any number of biological molecules through carboxyl or amine chemical reations. They are available in seven colors—spanning from blues at 490nm to reds at 620nm—and two chemical reaction groups for use in a range of biotechnology applications such as cell labeling or live cell in-vivo imaging.

In March 2004, Antibodies, Inc., of Davis, California, started working with Evident to produce quantum dot conjugates for biological research. Using EviTags as a base, Antibodies, Inc is delivering quantum dot-based secondary antibodies and Streptavidin, Protein A and Protein G conjugates, and launched a custom quantum dot conjugation service. These conjugates are ready-to-use for researchers in biology, life-sciences, drug discovery, disease diagnostics, proteomics, and genomics.

In July 2004, Evident began commercial production of Biotin EviFluors^™—its advanced biotin probes or biotinylated quantum dot fluorophores. EviFluors are available in wavelengths from blue to near infrared; offer significant advantages over traditional fluors and dyes including a wider range of colors, brighter emission, and increased stability; and they can enable next generation applications in cell biology, drug discovery, cancer research and many other life science fields.

Evident has produced a video on Quantum Dots in Life Sciences:

Applying Antibodies Conjugates. The video, available on the company's website at www.evidenttech.com, provides an overview of the optical and electronic properties of quantum dot nanomaterials and a multi-faceted discussion on using quantum dot conjugates in life science research. The video is part of the company's commitment to making its website rich in educational material for customers, partners and the interested public

As of January 2005, hundreds of research labs have purchased EviDots, EviTags, and EviFluors and are actively publishing results using these new materials. And Evident has distribution relation-ships with companies in the United States, Europe, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan who handle a range of Evident quantum dot materials including its life science products.

As part of its ongoing product development efforts in the life science field, Evident is bringing to production another type of EviTag, making use of lipids. These coatings allow for greater flexibility by introducing a smaller sized particle and a brighter particle. In addition, a version of EviTags will be intro­duced that has no active chemistry on the particle, making it ideal for in-vivo studies in live animals.

Evident is also working to further optimize quantum dots for biological labeling under a contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). In this project, Evident is working to detect single molecules within live cells using quantum dot nanoprobes that will signal when the cell changes metabolic states.

Ultimately, this work can be used to observe multi-component molecule events in their natural environment.

Several other research grants have been awarded to Evident, including one with ITT Industries. The ITT Industries Advanced Engineering and Sciences Division (AES) was awarded a 15-month, $1.5 million contract by DARPA for the Threat Agent Cloud Tactical Intercept & Countermeasures (TACTIC) Program: Detection Technologies. This contract is a joint effort between ITT, Evident, General Dynamics, and the University of Texas at Austin. Research will focus on developing a new cloud seeding technology with remote sensing for standoff threat identification. This research can help protect troops by providing both a remote source and a faster response time for cloud identification based upon specific binding to individual biological or chemical threats.

Evident Technologies continues to expand its existing nanomaterial product lines and is adding new lines such as EviDot composites in a series of resins and other matrix materials which expand the form factor for quantum dots and enable the creation of films, beads and fibers. Several grants have been awarded to the company to explore quantum dots in solid-state lighting, thermoelectric uses, and the use of quantum dots in security ink applications, and there is a growing range of development projects .

Evident has built a strong team of results-oriented business profes­sionals and top scientists teaming up with customers and partners to create new materials, new products, even new markets.