Here's the story HC ... a little old, but may give a little more perspective to the GE deal ...
Business News - Local News
EXCLUSIVE REPORTS
From the July 9, 2004 print edition
Biotech wave lands on Galveston shore
Galveston snagged two biotech wins last month.
GE Healthcare announced in late June that it has signed on to help Galveston-based AptaMed raise $10 million to research and develop technology for biodefense vaccines. At the same time, AptaMed partner Ciphergen Biosystems of Palo Alto, Calif., announced plans to open a satellite office in Galveston.
Ciphergen and AptaMed became partners as part of a $6 million federal grant through The University of Texas Medical Branch to develop tools for diagnosing infectious diseases.
Ciphergen's Galveston office will be one of several facilities in Texas, including Austin, says AptaMed co-founder and Chairman David Gorenstein. The office will focus on diagnosing viral infections caused by exposure to bioterrorism agents. Gorenstein says Ciphergen has not yet determined how many people it will employ on the island.
Also impressed with AptaMed -- which has received multimillion-dollar research grants from the National Institutes of Health -- is GE Healthcare, a unit of General Electric Co. No stranger to the region, GE Healthcare announced in May it would provide equipment, technology and expertise toward the establishment of a Center for Advanced Diagnostic Imaging in Houston's The University of Texas Research Park.
Gorenstein says GE Healthcare plans to offer AptaMed $1 million worth of consulting to help the firm raise money. GE Healthcare will recover the $1 million only if AptaMed meets its fundraising goal.
Gorenstein believes GE Healthcare's expertise and contacts will help the company turn its patented technologies and research into commercial products.
"GE can tap into pools of money that people in our stage of development would not otherwise be able to access," says Gorenstein, who is also an associate dean of research at UTMB.
Sandy Weinberg, senior director of Fast Trak Vaccines, a division of GE Healthcare, says it is too early to determine what kind of investors will be targeted for AptaMed.
"The first step is a business plan," Weinberg says.
Mary Ann Azevedo
AI
