Hawaii Pavilion at BIO showcases the best in Hawaii Life Sciences
Posted on May 5, 2014 in Helping Business, News
DBEDT is once again organizing a Hawaii pavilion at BIO to promote and highlight Hawaii life science companies. This event brings thousands of life science leaders from 60+ countries together for one week of intensive, networking activities where new opportunities are identified and promising partnerships begin. This year BIO will take place from June 23-26, 2014 in San Diego.
Hawaii life science participants this year will include Cardax, Eyegenix, Hawaii Biotech, HNu-nanoPOINT, Pono Pharma and Tissue Genesis. In addition to DBEDT, the High Technology Development Corporation (HTDC) and the Maui Economic Development Board will participate along with the University of Hawaii represented by the UH Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation and the UH Office of Technology Transfer and Economic Development (OTTED). Here are the profiles of the Hawaii life science companies participating in this year’s BIO.
Cardax is developing exceptionally safe and highly effective anti-inflammatory nutraceuticals and pharmaceuticals initially based on astaxanthin, a naturally occurring compound that reduces inflammation without the harmful side effects of current anti-inflammatory drugs (e.g., steroids, NSAIDs, anti-TNFs). Cardax and BASF formed a development and supply alliance for nature-identical, synthetic astaxanthin, under which BASF licensed nutraceutical commercialization rights and will pay Cardax royalties on nutraceutical sales; Cardax retains pharmaceutical rights. Cardax recently completed a reverse merger and raised $11M. With additional financing and/or strategic partnership, Cardax plans to conduct clinical trials in major diseases to support nutraceutical marketing and pharmaceutical approval.
Eyegenix
Eyegenix is developing the world’s first biosynthetic cornea replacement. The Eyegenix biosynthetic implant–with human compatibility and long term implantation experience, no immunological markers, capable of nerve regrowth, epithelialization, and tissue integration–will be used for artificial cornea and potentially other areas of tissue replacement and possibly drug delivery.
Hawaii Biotech
Hawaii Biotech Inc is the oldest biotech company in Hawaii. The company is developing biomedical products, including vaccines to prevent and drugs to treat infectious diseases for which there are currently no medical alternatives. These “first in class” products are targeted against emerging, tropical, and bio-terrorism infectious agents. Hawaii Biotech’s vaccine development efforts exploit our strong experience in the use of recombinant proteins to create subunit vaccines. Hawaii Biotech’s drug development activities are focused on small molecule drugs that block intracellular and extracellural bacterial toxins produced by bio-terrorism threats. The company also partners its saponin adjuvant for vaccine development.
HNu-nanoPOINT, winner of the Buzz of BIO award for Technologies of Tomorrow (see separate article in NEWS section), is a biotechnology company that provides custom automated microfluidics and imaging platforms to ground-based and space-based cell biology and embryology researchers. The high-throughput, remote-controlled and automated features allow long time-course experiments with multiple drug delivery options benefiting drug discovery, cancer biology, stem cell research, Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) research, and individualized cancer and stem cell therapies. HNu-nanoPOINT is proud to announce its SCORPIO-V platform for biological studies on board the International Space Station.
Pono Pharma
Pono Pharma is an early-stage drug development company committed to creating better treatment options for patients with cancer and for drug-resistant bacterial infections. Pono Pharma is developing two pipeline products: a proteasome inhibitor with a focus on multiple myeloma, and a novel anti-infective agent for treating drug-resistant Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria.
Tissue Genesis, Inc. (TGI) is a clinical-stage company in the high-growth field of regenerative medicine. The company is focused on clinical trial validation of adult stem cell therapeutics and the development of advanced platform technology to meet the broad needs of the healthcare market. The TGI clinical cell product uses the patient’s own (autologous) adipose (fat) tissue, known to be a rich source of adult stem cells (100x bone marrow) to treat a multitude of unmet clinical needs, including vascular and ischemic diseases, orthopedic injuries, wound repair, veterinary, genital-urinary, and plastics and esthetics repair. These cells are referred to in the industry as the Stromal Vascular Fraction (SVF).