Healthcare

$2.8 million for Pixel Velocity means 36 new jobs

By Newsroom

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November 5, 2008

Venture capital lightning strikes twice for Pixel Velocity. The Ann Arbor start-up recently received its second investment from Michigan's 21st Century Jobs Fund. That $1.8 million will come with another $2 million in venture capital. It's an investment that is expected to add 36 new jobs to its existing staff of 25 within the next few years. Pixel Velocity received $1.5 million from the 21st Century Jobs Fund in 2006 on top of another $5 million. The company creates high-speed digital image processing products for the surveillance and medical imaging markets. Pixel Velocity has become quite good at that, growing its revenue by triple digits annually and adding, on average, 7-9 people. Company officials maintain that surveillance market will continue to grow in this Post 9-11 world and so will its medical imaging work, which creates images of the heart, as the population ages. Source: Michigan Economic Development Corporation Writer: Jon Zemke

Latest in Healthcare

Eastern teams up with BCBS to improve health of Ypsilanti children

By Newsroom

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Education

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November 5, 2008

Eastern Michigan University and the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Foundation are trying to take a bite out of childhood obesity.The foundation has give EMU a $167,000 grant to work with students at four elementary schools in Ypsilanti – Brick, Childs, Model and Redner. The idea is to teach these 1,770 kids healthy lifestyle habits and hopefully shed a few of their fast-food, inactive routines. Getting a teachers and staff to follow suit would be icing on the cake."Reaching children at this early stage, before serious problems develop, can help them avoid obesity and associated chronic diseases later in life," says Ira Strumwasser, executive director and CEO of the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Foundation. The grant plans to recreate the atmosphere in these schools to emphasize healthy living in all aspects of life for everyone at the schools, not students. School employees are participating in stress management and nutrition workshops held by EMU faculty. School officials and university faculty will also study the health habits of students and teachers to see where improvements can be made.The program hopes to start whipping the kids into shape in January. Students will be able to participate (voluntarily) as they learn to develop a positive physical and mental image, eat healthier, be active at least one hour per day, decrease video “screen time” to two hours per day and learn sports skills they can enjoy throughout life. Students’ families also will be encouraged to participate. Source: Eastern Michigan UniversityWriter: Jon Zemke

Cielo MedSolutions lands $2 million grant, hiring 10

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Economic Development

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October 29, 2008

About $2 million in new money for Cielo MedSolutions means another 10 new jobs at the software start-up.The Ann Arbor-based company recently received $2 million from the 21st Century Jobs Fund and another $1 million plus cash infusion that is expected to create 70 new jobs at the 10-person company within the next few years. Of those 70 positions, ten will be open right away."That money will help us do further product development and new development," says Dave Morin, CEO of Cielo MedSolutions. "This lets us play on a national level and compete with our bigger competitors. It also lets us go for a very large expansion."The University of Michigan spin-off develops new software for the health-care industry. That technology helps make sure doctors connect with their patients when its time for a checkup, test or treatment they might otherwise forget. It claims that the software, if used properly, can help cut down on unnecessary procedures and provide doctors with up to a 200 percent return on their investment.Source: Dave Morin, CEO of Cielo MedSolutionsWriter: Jon Zemke

Nephrion adds 6 people, plans to repeat next year

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Economic Development

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October 29, 2008

An unsuccessful company isn’t necessarily a failed one. Take the example of Nephrion.The Ann Arbor-based start-up was founded from intellectual property that once belonged to another start-up. Both companies were founded by Dr. H. David Humes, a professor of Internal Medicine at University of Michigan and a serial entrepreneur.Nephrion took some of the intellectual property from the first company and combined it another IP and brought in three people looking to make something from nothing. That something is a firm that employs nine people and an intern. It's just received $2 million from Michigan's 21st Century Jobs Fund on top of another $2 million in venture capital. It expects to eventually create 200 jobs with the investment with nearly 10 positions created within the next year.Nephrion develops proprietary medical devices designed to treat several large unmet medical needs such as End Stage Renal Disease, Acute Renal Failure, Cardio-Pulmonary Bypass Surgery, Sepsis and other inflammatory conditions. The $4 million will help fund clinical trails on the devices, which are expected to be commercialized in 2010-11."We will use external resources," says Clint Dederick, chairman and CEO of Nephrion. In the mean time the company is focusing on clinical trails and raising capital. It has already raised approximately $3 million from four prominent Mid-Western venture funds.Source: Clint Dederick, chairman and CEO of NephrionWriter: Jon Zemke

Fletcher Spaght Ventures receives investment from Venture Michigan Fund

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Economic Development

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October 29, 2008

Fletcher Spaght Ventures recently hit its goal of raising $100 million for its latest venture capital fund after the Venture Michigan Fund made a commitment to help support it.Fletcher Spaght is a venture capital fund that invests in promising start-ups in the technology and healthcare sectors. The firm has a nationwide focus but also recently opened up an office in Ann Arbor to oversee its Michigan investment strategy. Frank Legacki will head up the office. Legacki is a veteran entrepreneur who served as a senior executive at healthcare software service provider Rosebud Solutions, until its sale to McKesson. Fletcher Spaght is 7 years old and is managed by John Fletcher, Peary Spaght, and Linda Tufts. Those three individuals have been consulting in the technology and healthcare industries for more than 25 years.The Venture Michigan Fund has made several other investments into VC firms with a significant portfolio of Michigan-based companies. Some of the venture capital firms include Chrysalis Ventures, Nth Power, RPM Ventures, Venture Investors and North Coast Technology Ventures. So far about 60 percent, or $95 million, of the Venture Michigan Fund has been distributed.These companies have invested $14.3 million in 10 Michigan-based firms. These investments have produced 125 new jobs and are expected to create more as the firms grow.Source: Venture Michigan FundWriter: Jon Zemke

HealthMedia becomes part of Johnson & Johnson, plans to stay in Ann Arbor

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Economic Development

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October 29, 2008

It's gone but it's staying. That's the situation with HealthMedia. Gone is the old private company. Staying is the Ann Arbor-based firm that is now a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson.The corporate behemoth acquired Health Media Monday for an undisclosed amount to create a wellness and prevention business platform. HealthMedia and its 140 employees (most of which are stakeholders in the firm) expect to stay and grow in Ann Arbor for the foreseeable future."We think this is an important space for HealthMedia," says Susan Odenthal, a spokeswoman for Johnson & Johnson. "We expect it will continue to grow as it has grown in the past."The company, born from 30-plus years of behavioral science research at the University of Michigan, has grown to 140 employees. It has added 10 in the last few months alone. Of those more than 100 of them are based out of Tree Town. HealthMedia helps health plan providers save time and money using scalable behavior change interventions through the Internet. The firm uses its technology and behavioral science to deliver individually tailored behavior change suggestions and programs. The net result has been increased medical compliance and productivity while reducing medical utilization, which, of course, increases profitability for health plans and employers. Johnson & Johnson has been a client of HealthMedia for years before the acquisition. Source: Susan Odenthal, spokeswoman for Johnson & Johnson and Caren Kenney, a spokeswoman for HealthMediaWriter: Jon Zemke

Avidimer Therapeutics initiates clinical trails, plans to round out staff

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Economic Development

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October 29, 2008

Avidimer Therapeutics is working on some promising new technology, promising enough to illicit a recent $2.4 million investment from 21st Century Jobs Fund. That investment is expected to help pay for more clinical trails for the pharmaceutical company as it aims to commercializes its first product in 2014-15. The 3-year-old company employs about five people today along with another half a dozen independent contractors.Those numbers are expected to grow as the firm conducts more clinical trails. Eight new jobs are expected to be created by the $2.4 million investment and accompanying $5 million in matching funds."We're looking at adding several more people to round out our management team and clinical staff within the next year or so," says David Repp, vice president of business operations for Avidimer Therapeutics.Avidimer Therapeutics lead product is a compound that targets diseases while minimizing collateral damage to healthy tissues. Two of the biggest diseases it's looking at targeting are rheumatoid arthritis and cancer. The Ann Arbor-based firm has already done the pre-clinical trail work for the cancer aspect and plans to do so with the rheumatoid arthritis soon. A previous 21st Century Jobs Fund grant of $2.25 million helped pay for the pre-clinical work for the cancer aspect of the compound.Source: David Repp, vice president of business operations for Avidimer TherapeuticsWriter: Jon Zemke

The Life Sciences Orchestra

By Kim North Shine

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Arts & Culture

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October 22, 2008

"Paging Dr. Clarinet... " For the last eight years U-M's life sciences orchestra has been bringing together eighty or so of the university's most talented doctors, dentists, researchers, technicians and students to make beautiful music. And it doesn't matter how many letters they've got after their name. They have to audition like everyone else.

Ann Arbor OccuSciences plans to go from 5 to 25-30 employees by 2010

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Education

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October 15, 2008

OccuSciences plans to start conducting clinical trails on its new diabetes early detection technology in November.If the tests go as expected the Ann Arbor-based start-up expects to go on a hiring binge within the next two years. The 1-year-old firm predicts a jump from its current staff of five people to 15 by the beginning of 2010. That could jump again to 25-30 people by the end of 2010.OccuSciences is a University of Michigan spin-off created by professors Dr. Victor Elner and Howard Petty. It's main product is a technology that assesses metabolic stress in the retina of a human eye. Put simply, it scans an eye to detect whether the patient has diseases like diabetes or glaucoma. "Our test measures how the actual cells and tissues are doing," says Matt Field, business manager with OccuSciences.This allows optometrists to see if someone has (or is at risk of developing) diabetes or glaucoma 10-15 years before it can be detected through traditional testing. And it can be done as quickly and easily as a traditional eye test.Right now, OccuSciences is using a $150,000 grant to develop a prototype of the technology. It plans to conduct testing through the latter part of this year, all of next year and into 2010. It hopes to begin commercialization (and job creation) soon after.Source: Matt Field, business manager with OccuSciencesWriter: Jon Zemke

Pixel Velocity speeding toward 100 percent growth, adding 8 new people

By Newsroom

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Community Development

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September 24, 2008

Seven years ago Pixel Velocity started with two people, Eric Sieczka and Dave McCubbery. Today they are the bosses of 25 employees at the Ann Arbor-based firm. The company creates high-speed digital image processing products for the surveillance and medical imaging markets.Pixel Velocity grew incrementally at first, conducting research for its first five years. They were ready to commercialize their product with $5 million in start-up capital and another $1.5 million grant from Michigan's 21st Century Job Fund."Up until that point we had half a dozen people," says Sieczka, president and CEO of Pixel Velocity. "Each year since then we have hired about eight people, including 7-9 people this year. We're growing pretty fast."Sieczka expects his company to continue that growth for the foreseeable future. The firm's revenue is expected to jump another 100 percent while its employee base goes up another 30 percent."We're going to grow pretty dramatically," Sieczka says.He points out that its surveillance market will continue to grow in this Post 9-11 world. So will its medical imaging market, where Pixel Velocity's technology specializes in creating images of the heart."They're both pretty important," Sieczka says.Source: Eric Sieczka, president and CEO of Pixel VelocityWriter: Jon Zemke