Biocrossroads, which provides money and support to Indiana’s life sciences industry, announced the seven finalists who stand to gain startup funding in its annual New Venture Competition. Six have biotech or healthcare in their sights. On Oct. 21, five of these companies will compete for $25,000 and access to the Indiana Seed II Fund‘s staff and network for early-stage business support at the Indiana Life Sciences Summit. Second and third place in this competition will rake in $15,000 and $10,000 respectively.
“The New Venture Competition has proven to be a great way for us to find and reward promising companies, and is an excellent opportunity for the competing companies to gain some exposure within Indiana’s life sciences community,” David Johnson, president and CEO of BioCrossroads, said in a release.
Medical Devices:
Jace Medical, a startup with Cleveland Clinic ties and a “novel cardiac device” with aims to improve surgeons’ efficiency plus patients’ long-term outcomes
Health IT:
Curvo Labs, a big-data based hospital supply chain management system that has seen money from another Indiana investment firm, Elevate Ventures
Solstice Medical, a seven-year-old company that designs, engineers and prototypes medical RFID tags, as well as Dock to Doc, a “healthcare business intelligence solution suite which provides surgical inventory management solutions, RFID smart cabinets and patient flow optimization”
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
GoLIMS, startup with cloud-based technology that helps biotech research teams (and teams in other areas) organize their efforts with electronic notebooks, inventory and document management
The other two companies–both Indiana University spinouts–are competing for a “Pre-Venture” prize of $10,000 that is reserved for even earlier-stage companies. Rene Medical, a medical device company, aims to treat contrast-induced nethropathy with its kidni System. Emphymab Biotech is at work to develop the first disease-modifying platform drug for emphysema.
