Wednesday, September 14, 2011

w3w3.com Interviews Holli Riebel: 'Challenges and solutions for the Bio and Life Sciences industry'

Quoting from CBSA Pres/CEO's recent interview with w3w3.com's Larry Nelson on the upcoming Rocky Mountain Life Science Investor and Partnering Conference (RMLIPC) in Denver:

"The Bio and Life Sciences industry faces huge challenges raising venture capital in a difficult economy. Investing in an industry that takes ten to twelve years and over $1.3 Billion to bring a drug to market just might shift the action to some widget or a software program that can be flipped to realize a return in just six months. That's the challenge facing the Colorado BioScience Association (CBSA) and president/CEO, Holli Riebel. 'Also,' she said, 'venture capitalists reside more on the coasts, and so we're always having a more difficult time attracting venture capital out here in the middle of the country.'"

Link to w3w3.com

Link to download the podcast

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Medivance® Inc. Arctic Sun Products are the Preferred Choice of 2011 U.S. News & World Report Top-10 Ranked Honor Roll Hospitals

Louisville, CO, - September 13, 2011 - Building on a track record of serving the nation's top ranked hospitals, Medivance® Inc. is pleased to announce the 2011 U.S. News & World Report's Top-10 Ranked Honor Roll Hospitals are all users of its Targeted Temperature Management™ product, the Arctic Sun®. The announcement was made by Robert Kline, President & CEO, who stated, "It is often said that you are known by the company you keep, and there's no better group of medical centers to be affiliated with than the U.S. News Top-10 Honor Roll. The Medivance Team is very proud of this achievement."

Body temperature, systematically measured and reported as a vital sign, contributes to maintenance of normal physiology and affects the processes leading to recovery after illness. Intentional manipulation of body temperature has therefore emerged as a key treatment strategy for hospitals. The Medivance® Arctic Sun® brings precision Targeted Temperature Management™ to the highest level of performance available today for intentionally manipulating body temperature as a treatment strategy.

"Our Arctic Sun® 5000 is really the only product in the market that can achieve, with precision, a prescribed order set for temperature management with consistency for each patient. This is of particular importance in the hospital environment for Continuous Quality Improvement , thus it's not surprising the top ten Honor Roll hospitals make use of our technology," Kline explained.

Link to the PR Newswire

Link to the PRWeb Newswire

Link to the PitchEngine Social Media Release

Monday, September 12, 2011

9News Interview: "Conference brings together local innovative life-science companies"

CBSA Pres/CEO Holli Reibel interviewed with 9News Business Reporter Gregg Moss this morning about the upcoming Rocky Mountain Life Science Investor and Partnering Conference in Denver. Presenting companies featured in the interview included PeptiVir, VetDC and Flashback Technologies.

Link to information about the RMLIPC, being held Sept 21-22 at the Brown Palace

Link to the related 9News.com posting

Sunday, September 11, 2011

NCBR: 'Biotech firms lead healthy innovation'

Quoting CBSA's Pres/CEO perspective from the Northern Colorado Business Report article by Josh Zaffos covering Inviragen, Senator Bennet/FDA Commissioner Hamburg CEO Roundtable and the RMLIPC:

"Bringing a drug or device to market has its challenges, said Holli Riebel, president of the Colorado BioScience Association: 'What makes it difficult right now is the regulatory market.'...

'There's a really large concern we're hurting (biotechnology) innovation in this country by not getting to market' within a reasonable timeframe, Riebel said...

Riebel said the FDA has struggled to keep up with developing technologies, while also suffering through the ubiquitous federal-agency problems of understaffing and restricted budgets. The agency is currently hiring new reviewers, but bringing inexperienced staff up to speed is a concern...

Riebel said one of the major interests from biotech boosters is for a fast-track process for regulatory approval of certain products. Officials have also pushed for reviewers to get training and certification in certain areas to speed along processing in some cases.

'How can we develop more predictability and consistency?' Riebel said. 'How do you start putting benefits into the analysis and not just look at what is the risk.'...

Much of the funding for biotech ventures is based on the East and West coasts, so the investor conference enables regional bioscience firms to make connections and prove they're equal to competitors from around the country, Riebel said.

The time is particularly ripe for such opportunities, she added, since many big pharmaceutical corporations have trimmed down in-house research and development in recent years, partly because of the costs and the regulatory environment. Companies are more willing to invest in small biotech firms that can focus on developing a few product lines from research programs to marketable drugs and devices.

Inviragen is a prime example, Riebel said, having developed vaccines that originated from the local labs of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and CSU and now targeting them for populations in developing countries.

'We're feeling better about some of the financial opportunities,' Riebel said, 'because we're turning out fantastic companies.'"

Link to the complete article

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Cat Care Society 'Cajun's Closet' Thrift Shop, Denver Westword's 2011 Best, Reopens After Renovation Project

The Cat Care Society's 'Cajun's Closet' Thrift Shop reopened Saturday, September 3, after several weeks of renovation, including painting, new flooring and plenty of TLC from the Cajun's team. The announcement is made by Shari Shiffer-Krieger, CCS Executive Director, who says the shop is better than ever with great collectibles, home items, jewelry, clothes (and more clothes), books (and more books) all at Cajun's great low prices. Regular hours are Wednesday - Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

"It was time for a freshening up at Cajun's, so our entire team did the job during the past few weeks," Shiffer-Krieger says. "Our shop was named Denver Westword's Best Thrift Store 2011 and we wanted to keep it up to the standards shoppers expect from the Cat Care Society."

Link to the PRweb Newswire

LifeScience Aurora: 'All CID4 portfolio companies presenting at upcoming RMLIPC in Denver'

Quoting from LifeScience Aurora:

"The Colorado Institute for Drug, Device and Diagnostic Development (CID4) will have all four of its portfolio companies — Sophono, PeptiVir, VetDC and Flashback Technologies — presenting and participating in discussions at the 2011 Rocky Mountain Life Science Investor and Partnering Conference Sept. 21-23 in Denver.

The four CID4 companies were announced in mid-August as part of 30 from the across the country that were hand-selected by a national committee of life science investors and business development executives for the three-day RMSLIPC conference at the Brown Palace Hotel, which draws venture capital funds, corporate venture funds and business development leaders from the largest global biopharmaceutical and medical device companies."

Link to the article

CBSA's Pres/CEO Holli Riebel Joins CU Tech Transfer Advisory Board

Quoting from the Boulder County Business Report:

"BOULDER - Eleven new members have been added to the University of Colorado Technology Transfer Office's Business Advisory Board.

The tech transfer office facilitates the movement of CU technologies from the research lab to the marketplace. The Business Advisory Board plays an important part in assessing the tech transfer office's performance, advising on new initiatives, providing access to the technology business community and advocating for resources needed to build a world-class technology transfer operation at CU.

New board members include:

Shannon Golden-Shubert, partner and co-founder at Life + Tech Law.

Doug Henston, renewable energy entrepreneur.

Paul Nelson, managing director at Clean Range Ventures.

Rex R. O'Neal, partner at Faegre & Benson LLP; co-chairman of the firm's emerging companies practice and new energy, clean technology and climate initiative.

Misha Plam, founder of BiOptix and AmideBio.

Holli Riebel, president and chief executive of the Colorado BioScience Association.

John Ryan, partner at medical technology firm Onset Ventures.

Chris Shapard, executive director of the Colorado Cleantech Industry Association.

Laura Simon, director of UC Denver's Office of BioPharma Alliances.

Fintan R. Steele, associate director at CU-Boulder's Colorado Initiative in Molecular Biotechnology.

Trent Yang, director of entrepreneurship and business development at the CU-Boulder Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute.

Link to bcbr.com