Date: Mar 11, 2011 Author: Andy Giegerich Source: bizjournals (
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Editor's note: In November, 21 Oregon bioscience companies qualified for grants issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The funding supports projects that showed significant potential to produce new and cost-saving therapies.
The Oregon companies are receiving a total of $5.4 million of the $1 billion in grants and tax credits available through the Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Project. For this Focus on Bioscience, the Business Journal is taking a look at two of the companies receiving the grants
A Portland-based biotechnology company has a ready-to-go product that's already in demand worldwide.
All the company needs now is a little money to take it to the next level.
Sedia Biosciences Corp. wants to obtain at least $1 million that will help it enter new markets, create new distribution channels and forge commercial partnerships for its existing products used to test people for HIV. The money would also help Sedia build and commercialize several new products that the company recently developed.
Sedia makes diagnostic kits that allow health professionals to test in vitro — meaning in a test tube — for several global pandemic conditions, such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and hepatitis.
The company's initial product line offers "rapid HIV" tests that allow doctors and other health care providers to quickly obtain and analyze test samples.
At stake is a global diagnostic market worth $50 billion. The global HIV testing market alone is estimated at $4 billion.
There's a huge need for these products worldwide, but many nations lack the resources to conduct countrywide diagnoses, said Roger Gale, Sedia's CEO.
"We're dealing with complex and distinct channels where governments need to test but don't have the dollars to buy it," he said.
Sedia is making some headway: The company collected about $61,000 in so-called therapeutic discovery grants awarded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services late last year. The company earned another small chunk of capital about a week ago. While Gale wouldn't disclose the exact amount, he acknowledged that the company still has some way to go before hitting the desired $1 million mark.
Although investors steered about 10 percent of their venture capital and private equity investments toward medical device companies in 2010, they've nonetheless become quite choosy as to where their money lands.
Gale said investors want a higher degree of confidence than in the past regarding a venture's success.
With Sedia, his major fundraising strategy has been to "daisy-chain," that is, getting just enough money to create new products. The company had until recently only paid limited compensation to its five-member staff. All Sedia employees own equity in the company.
And while Sedia's 2010 revenue was less than $1 million, it expects to exceed that figure several fold once its marketing efforts gain traction.
The company is looking for help from global investors, which makes sense given Sedia's global markets. Sedia wants to market its HIV surveillance products in more than 40 countries.
Gale said the technology is evolving and may eventually allow targeting of therapeutic treatment, depending on when patients were infected. Certain therapies are more effective at different times during the disease, he said.
Bioscience companies such as Sedia contribute an overall $4 billion to Oregon's economy. In vitro diagnostic companies could particularly become one of the state's hottest sectors.
"In vitro diagnostics has been big for a while, and, for HIV, everyone's trying to make easier tests all the time," said John Bial, president and CEO of Portland-based Yecuris Corp., which creates cell analysis products.
"There's certainly a shortage of good diagnostic tests for a lot of things, and a lot of researchers are working hard to come up with solutions. Typically, the diagnostic testing will follow the funding."
Sedia's HIV test measures the proportion of antibodies specific to HIV 1 compared to the total antibody population in a patient's blood. The tests analyze plasma, serum and dried blood spots.
The company's current customers include the U.S. National Surveillance Program as well as foreign government programs. Gale said the company has "limited direct competition" for its HIV tests. It will market the tests as a low-cost — as little as $2 per test abroad — option in a sector beset by rising health care costs.
Sedia Biosciences Corp.
HQ: Portland; CEO: Roger Gale; Employees: Five; Technology: In vitro testing for quick detection of HIV
