Topic: Arthritis Imaging Inc. uses Lyme patient as example
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AP Pa. Group Spurs Biotech Growth Monday February 5, 9:58 am ET By Daniel Lovering, AP Business Writer Pa. Group Nurtures Biotech Startups to Spur Regional Growth
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Doctors detected 16-year-old Alison Fritz's juvenile rheumatoid arthritis through traditional methods of diagnosis: talking with her, examining her joints and studying samples of her blood. ADVERTISEMENT
That followed several years of aching joints that other doctors attributed to growing pains. The condition, it turned out, was a consequence of Lyme disease contracted by the Erie resident when she was five.
Now a nascent biotech firm is hoping cameras and software that produce thermal and three-dimensional images of patients' joints will remove the considerable guesswork involved in evaluating arthritis patients like Fritz -- and deliver profits.
Arthritis Imaging Inc. is among scores of health and bioscience startup companies being shepherded by the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse, a business development group seeking to capitalize on the region's academic and medical resources.
The organization -- part incubator, part investment fund, part consultancy -- is one of three started in Pennsylvania with $100 million in state money from a tobacco settlement five years ago. The others are the Life Sciences Greenhouse of Central Pennsylvania, in Harrisburg, and the Biotechnology Greenhouse of Southern Pennsylvania, also known as BioAdvance, in Philadelphia.
Founded partly by the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University -- both major research centers -- the Pittsburgh Greenhouse spent years setting the stage for bioscience entrepreneurs to take their ideas to market.
In addition to its $33 million share of state money, the Greenhouse raised $70 million from the former steel town's sizable foundations. About $61 million was directed to the universities for recruiting faculty and building and upgrading facilities.
With university relationships and facilities established, the Greenhouse is now shifting course.
"The mission has changed clearly to focus more on companies," said John W. Manzetti, the recently named president and CEO of the Greenhouse, located in a sleek office building where a steel mill once stood.
The group, which has a staff of 18, has worked with more than 190 companies and would-be companies. About 110 remain at their earliest stages, with aspiring makers of medical devices and other products still hashing out plans.
The Greenhouse has put about $5 million in 33 companies, nearly half in the last year, Manzetti said. Other investments include $15 million in a venture capital fund, Pa. Early Stage Partners, in which it holds a stake.
"We're not giving huge chunks of money," he said, adding that investments typically range from $100,000 to $300,000. "We're not a venture capital fund. ... We're giving early stage investment."
The Greenhouse likely will be able to generate enough revenue to cover at least half its expenses and investments in the next five years, he said. "Our purpose here is economic development, jobs in western Pennsylvania," he said.
Manzetti said he was trying to raise the Greenhouse's profile and search out collaborators. Ties have been forged with other economic development groups, including those in New York, Virginia, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin.
The Greenhouse is among many groups trying to reinvigorate the economy in this corner of Pennsylvania weakened by the departure of heavy industry decades ago. And it's trying to cultivate businesses in a sector fraught with difficulties.
"It's going to be a really long-term investment, and it's going to be a while before you see significant impacts from these kinds of programs," said Dan Berglund, president and CEO of the State Science and Technology Institute, an Ohio-based national resource center for tech-based economic development organizations.
"You've got research, clinical trials, FDA approval, not to mention actually growing the company," he said.
But Pittsburgh has a high level of employment in the life sciences field, which includes biotech, Berglund said. That would indicate there's "enough of a base there for success to occur," he said.
Berglund likened Pittsburgh's life sciences market to that of St. Louis, saying it remained smaller than established centers such as San Diego, San Francisco and Boston. Baltimore and Washington are also emerging industry hotspots, he said.
Manzetti acknowledged the long timeline for new biotech companies, but said several Greenhouse enterprises were making strides. Cohera Medical Inc., for example, plans to market a biodegradable human glue that doctors would use to bind deep wounds. Another firm, Renal Solutions Inc., is conducting clinical trials for a home dialysis product.
At Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, Fritz, the juvenile rheumatoid arthritis patient, has been undergoing tests as part of initial clinical trials for the camera and software device being developed by Arthritis Imaging.
During a recent session, she placed one of her arms in a splint while a doctor took thermal and three-dimensional pictures using tripod-mounted cameras. The images appeared on laptop computer screens, helping the doctor measure inflammation.
"By using this, we come up with an objective measure," unlike the highly subjective techniques normally used to assess arthritis patients, said Dr. Steven Spalding, a pediatric rheumatologist. "It's immediate, it's concrete and you know what's going on."
Dr. Raphael Hirsch, head of the hospital's pediatric rheumatology division and co-founder of Arthritis Imaging, said he had been thinking for years that there has to be a better way to quantify inflammation.
"This would be part of the clinic visit of the patient, just like when you go to the dentist and you get your X-rays before the dentist comes in," he said.
The company's president and chief executive, Fred Marroni, said he previously had worked with about half a dozen biotech startups, and that about half had received follow-through funding. He said the new arthritis product -- possibly a multi-tier desk equipped with moveable cameras -- could hit the market by mid- to late-2009.
But success will depend on many factors, such as an understanding in the market that the device has a clear medical benefit.
"If you don't have the science, you don't have anything," he said.
-------------------- There is no wealth but life. -John Ruskin
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