Pilot Therapeutics Holdings, Inc. (PLTT)

[matthew288]

new article out about PLTT

http://carolinanewswire.com/news/News.cgi?database=1news.db&command=viewone&id=3512&op=t


Pilot Therapeutics subject of feature in April's Business North Carolina
03-27-2007

CHARLOTTE - Nine years ago, Wake Forest University biochemist Floyd “Ski” Chilton — inspired by his ailing younger sister -- got an idea to start a company that would use fatty acids to make food that could treat inflammations such as arthritis, asthma and eczema. Pilot Therapeutics set out to make an edible gel that would use those fatty acids as a medical treatment. Long before it had a product to sell, the company won the attention of investors, then launched a bidding war between the Carolinas before burning through more than $18 million and, presumably, dying in late 2003. But Pilot wasn’t dead, just in a deep coma, according to Business North Carolina magazine. As it turned out, Pilot and its founder, who limped back to Wake Forest to resume a research career, survived encounters with politics and tragedy to re-emerge late last year to sign a deal with a Boulder, Colo.-based company that would make and market its medical foods. Pilot now has its first operating cash flow, and Chilton is cautiously trying to reconstitute the company. Whether it will have better luck this time is another question. Investors are likely to be more discerning, and even biotech-hungry state recruiters are more savvy about their spending.

Chilton plans to do things differently as well. He’s leaving the company’s day-to-day operations to a professional manager, though he will continue to be its chief science officer. Looking back on its disastrous first run, he says, “I was simply an entrepreneur trying to survive.”

Business North Carolina is a Charlotte-based statewide monthly magazine that focuses on the people, events and trends that shape business in North Carolina. Since it began publication in 1981, it has won more than 75 national awards for its writing, reporting and design. www.businessnc.com
For more information: David Kinney, Business North Carolina, 704-523-6987, Ext. 223