Winners of the 2009 Biotechnology Vision Summit’s Emerging Company Showcase announced

Six Wisconsin biotechnology companies have been selected the winners of the first Emerging Company Showcase. The showcase is part of the Biotechnology Vision Summit 2009, being held on Wednesday, Oct. 7, at the Madison Marriott West in Madison, Wis. The summit and the showcase are being hosted by BioForward, the member-driven state association that is the voice of Wisconsin’s biotechnology industry.

The companies, each of which has been in business four years or less, were chosen because they have transitioned successfully out of the laboratory, with good proof of concept for their products. All of the winners are at the pre-commercialization stage, but have made progress towards bringing their products to market. Each was judged to have a unique value proposition.. This year’s Emerging Company Showcase winners are:

• AquaMost LLC, Madison, Wis., has created a unique, scalable water-purification device that destroys a wide variety of contaminants and pathogens. The company’s product will enable it to address significant unmet needs in a $1.5-billion market.
• Echometrix LLC, Madison, Wis., is a developer of a proprietary ultrasound technology, licensed from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, that offers a new quantitative approach to the functional analysis of musculoskeletal injuries.
• Flex Biomedical Inc., Madison, Wis., is developing and commercializing novel products for the treatment and diagnosis of orthopedic injuries and diseases, including a synthetic joint-lubricating polymer, Flex Polymer, and a novel osteoarthritis diagnostic, Flex qCTA.
• Invivosciences LLC, Wauwatosa, Wis., is researching and developing engineered, tissue-based tests and products that mimic human and animal functions. Its high-throughput platform technology, supported by the Palpator™ and Mini-Construct Chamber™, enables actionable, personalized diagnostics, toxicology studies, drug screening and development using human cell-based tissue models.
• Rapid Diagnostek Inc., Hudson, Wis., has developed a patented biosensor platform that offers one-step, 60-second, high-sensitivity detection of pathogens, proteins and bio-molecules in blood, urine and other liquids, without reagents and using a low-cost, cell-phone-sized instrument.
• Semba Biosciences Inc., Madison, Wis., provides instruments and consumables for chemical and biological compound purification, and contract purification services. The company’s chromatography system is a fully-automated, bench-top-deployable, continuous flow system for research and semi-preparative scale purification.

In addition to complementary registration for the summit, the winners receive high-visibility exhibit space, recognition at one of its large plenary sessions and other premiums.

“We are delighted to recognize the first six participants in BioForward’s Emerging Company Showcase,” said Bryan Z. Renk, executive director of BioForward. “Together, these six companies represent the breadth and depth of innovative companies that continue to emerge in Wisconsin’s growing biotechnology industry.”