Tactile Systems Technology (Minneapolis, MN)

 Tactile Systems Technology  (Minneapolis, MN; no SBIR), which has developed a high-tech wrap to treat swollen limbs caused by lymphodema and other ailments, has raised $11.8M. [Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal, Oct 30, 07]

Taligen Therapeutics (Greenwood Village, CO)

Nearer the Action. biotech start-up Taligen Therapeutics (Greenwood Village, CO; $1M SBIR) is moving its headquarters to Cambridge MA and hired a local Novartis AG (Swiss giant) executive to run the company, .... with just eight employees, but recently raised $65 million in VC  [Boston Globe, Jul 24, 08].

Talima Therapeutics (Santa Clara, CA)

Talima Therapeutics (Santa Clara, CA; no SBIR)  raised $19M in a second funding round. .. founded in 2005, has developed a micro-implant technology to enable site-specific drug delivery designed to minimize the side effects of systemic drugs [San Jose Mercury News, Jun 6]

Tanox (Houston, TX)

Tanox (Houston, TX; $1.5M SBIR) is being bought by Genentech. Founder CEO Nancy Chang of the 20-year-old biotech company who was a professor at the Baylor College of Medicine says that Pharmaceutical companies are realizing that it’s so expensive to discover new drugs that they’re relying more and more on biotechs for the discovery, development and concept phases. [Southwest Economy, Dallas Federal Reserve, M/A07]  Formed in 1986 and first SBIR in 1988 and last SBIR in 2000. It's a poster story SBIR - seed money for starting real innovation followed by private capital - instead of steadily feeding market-dead beneficiaries.  Chang notes that the U.S. is still the one place where people value creativity. There are savvy investors and hard-driving entrepreneurs in the U.S. who are willing to invest their money, time and expertise on innovative ideas in new drug development.

Biotech Tanox (Houston, TX) will sell itself to Genentech for $919 million. [Houston Chronicle, Jan 16] SBIR $1.4M until Y2K.

Tanox up 45%  on being acquired by Genentech.  [Nov 10, 06] $1.4M SBIR in the 1990s.

Tarari (San Diego,CA)

Tarari (San Diego,CA; no SBIR) is being sold to LSI for $85M cash – giving Tarari a large parent to support the roll out of chips that ward off computer viruses. a five-year-old company that has raised $42 million in venture capital, has been selling its chips for about two years, with customers including Cisco Systems and Secure Computing. [San Diego Union Tribune, Sep 6]

Targacept

Targacept up 11% [Oct 30, 08]

Targacept up 17% [Oct 28, 08]

Targacept down 11% [Oct 17, 08]

Targacept up 50% [Oct 16, 08]

Targacept down 35% [Oct 15, 08]

Targacept  up 87% [Oct 10, 08]

Targacept down 36% [Oct 9, 08]

Targacept down 11% [Oct 8, 08]

Targacept down 14% [Oct 7, 08]

Targacept down 11% [Oct 8, 08]

Targacept down 14% [Oct 7, 08]

Targacept up 18% [Sep 25, 08]

Targacept up 37% [Sep 18, 08]

Targacept  down 29% [Sep 17, 08]

Targacept  down 31% [Sep 16, 08] on inconclusive study results.

Targacept up 11% [Sep 10, 08]

Targacept up 11% [Jul 30, 08]

Targacept kept climbing the hill, up another 15%.  [Nov 3, 06] Somebody knows something.

Targacept up 14% [Nov 2, 06].

Targanta (Cambridge, MA)

Targanta Therapeutics (Cambridge MA) went public [Oct 10, 07] for only $57M, below its planned $90M.

Antibiotics developer Targanta Therapeutics (Cambridge MA, no SBIR) priced its $90M IPO for some still future emergence.  [Sep 28, 07]

Targanta Therapeutics (Cambridge MA; no SBIR). has launched a clinical trial to study less frequent dosing regimens of its lead antibiotic, four months after announcing plans for an IPO.  [Mass High Tech, Sep 14]

Targanta (Cambridge MA, no SBIR)got $70M in VC money to develop a powerful antibiotic from a microbe discovered in Haitian dirt.  The intellectual property comes from Eli Lily which exited the business to focus on other diseases.  [Stephen Heuser, Boston Globe, Feb 9]

Targeted Genetics

Nasdaq warned Targeted Genetics that its stock could be delisted if it doesn't rise above $1 for at least 10 consecutive days within six months [Seattle Times, Apr 26, 08]

Targeted Genetics lost $16M for the year, only half its 2006 loss of $33M.  [Seattle Times, Mar 26]

FDA cleared Targeted Genetics to restart its gene-therapy trial for rheumatoid arthritis after an investigation indicated the treatment did not contribute to the death of an Illinois woman. [Angel Gonzalez, Seattle Times, Nov 26]

Targeted Genetics up 11% [Oct 10, 07]

Targeted Genetics (one Phase 2 SBIR) put its leading clinical trial (of its inflammatory arthritis drug) on hold yesterday after one of the enrolled patients became seriously ill. ... also working on therapies for human immunodeficiency virus, congestive heart failure and Huntington's disease [Seattle Times, Jul 25]

Targeted Genetics completed a private-equity placement of $17.8M. [Seattle Times, Jun 29]

Targeted Genetics up 66% on news of making a profit of $800K even though a yearly loss of $34M.  [Mar 29, 07]

Targeted Genetics fell 20% on news of raising $8.7M by private placement. [Jan 8, 07]

Targeted Genetics   shot up more than 52 percent in trading Monday, but company officials say they don't know why the stock price skyrocketed.

Targeted Genetics up 26% after losing less than last year. [Nov 10, 06]

Targeted Genetics rocketed up a third on news of a debt deal. [Nov 7, 06]

Targeted Growth (Seattle WA)

With the two Montana Senators and governor smiling, Targeted Growth (Seattle WA; no SBIR), a renewable energy bioscience company, and Green Earth Fuels (Houston, TX; no SBIR), a vertically integrated renewable biodiesel energy company, announce the formation of a joint venture called Sustainable Oils, Inc. (www.susoils.com) at a press conference today. The new venture will produce and market up to 100 million gallons of Camelina-based biodiesel by 2010  [Targeted Growth press release, Nov 20] The seed will be grown mostly in Montana.

Techniscan Medical Systems (SLC, UT)

TechniScan Medical Systems (SLC,UT) got a $2.8M Phase 2 SBIR from NIH to perfect a breast cancer screening tool.  .... Without such support, promising technologies such as the USCT system might not be commercialized, said TechniScan CEO David Robinson.  [Linda Fantin, Salt Lake Tribune, Dec 18]  We hope that NIH had more evidence of market appeal than the company's claims and NIH scientists' hopes. Otherwise, they are just paying for a hobby that will die when the federal dollars end.

Technology and Devices International (Gaithersburg,MD)

Technologies and Devices International (Silver Spring, MD) claimed a revolutionary technical breakthrough by fabricating the industry’s first 6-inch diameter GaN epitaxial materials. 6-inch diameter GaN-on-sapphire epitaxial wafers were fabricated at TDI using it’s patented hydride vapor phase epitaxial (HVPE) process and equipment. TDI has had at least 14 Phase 1s and 3 Phase 2s from MDA. [Nov 04]

Blue Laser Breakthrough. Technology and Devices International (Gaithersburg,MD) made a GaN bulk substrate, which claims to improve the performance and lifetimes of GaN-based device designs. A single crystal GaN sample boule is grown on a GaN seed layer and then sliced into 1.5 inch diameter wafers. TDI's chief executive Vladimir Dmitriev said "The crystals are grown using a 1.5 inch GaN seed crystal and are expected to scale to 3 and 4 inches in the future, TDI has had four Phase 2 SBIRs in the last two years from BMDO and Navy. This substrate advance goes with the BMDO hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) for multi-layer epitaxial structures for advanced GaN-based devices with quantum wells. But now that BMDO will probably abandon such indirect benefit work, TDI will have to mine ONR harder.

TechTol Imaging (Toledo, OH)

Rocket Ventures, a pre-seed, early-stage venture fund for technology-based [Ohio] companies, has awarded Ignite! grants to three Toledo firms - ADS Biotechnology, TechTol Imaging, and DoX Systems. These grants are given to help the companies develop and use technology to create new products or improve processes that have an impact on jobs and revenues in Northwest Ohio.   [Toledo Free Press, Jun 13, 08]  No SBIR.

Telik

Telik up 10% [Dec 6, 07]

Telik dropped another 25% after the FDA has placed a clinical hold on the Investigational New Drug (IND) application for TELCYTA® [Jun 6, 07]

Telik dropped 21% after the FDA has placed a clinical hold on the Investigational New Drug (IND) application for TELCYTA® [Jun 4, 07]

Telik up 14% after losing less than expected. [Feb 23, 07]

Telik dropped 71% when a trial became "extremely disappointing". [Dec 26, 06]  Four Phase 1 SBIRs and one Phase 2, including three awards under its original name - Terrapin.

Tepha

Tepha (Cambridge MA; $1M SBIR) got $10.7M private funding. The company licensed its TephaFLEX biopolymer technology, which is based on research conducted at MIT, from its Cambridge neighbor Metabolix Inc. [Mass High Tech, Jun 6]

Terapio

Two Austin companies will share $3.7 million in grants from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund, which was created to spur commercialization of research in Texas. Receptor Logic Ltd. will receive $2 million to advance its work in the development of anti-bodies that can improve the understanding of the immune system and thus lead to better drugs and vaccines.  Terapio Inc. will receive $1.7 million to develop a cream to treat hand-foot syndrome, a painful swelling and numbness of the hands and feet that can occur as a side effect of several chemotherapy drugs.  Receptor was started in 2004 by Emergent Technologies Inc., an Austin-based life sciences venture capital firm, and Jon Weidanz, director of the Texas Tech University Center for Immunotherapeutic Research. The company, which has headquarters in Austin and a laboratory in Abilene, will use the investment to expand its commercialization efforts  [Lori Hawkins, Austin American-Statesman, Jun 19] Neither had SBIR. 

TeraStor (San Jose, CA)

Frankly, My Dear(Mar 4) Got a hot new technology idea? Get a government grant/contract to develop it in the usual four years of SBIR. Induce Phase 3 investment interest letters to convince government it has commercial potential but cannot raise investment capital for such new and revolutionary technology. Finish development in 2001 and get set for market impact. Sorry, market was preempted by a substitute in 1998. No, government won't tell you about the last line as it blathers about SBIR as a market-driven development program. Alternatively, raise $30M from Paul Allen and friends and unveil a tenfold improvement in disk-drive storage technology, 20GB hard disk, in 14 months from company start-up. "major technical breakthrough" say analysts of TeraStor (San Jose, CA) [Wall Street Journal Mar 3, 1997] . With that, you run Gone With the Wind and/or Hamlet in a window on your PC screen while beavering away writing reports for government contracts.

Templex Technology (Eugene, OR)

Fast Transfer on Fast Track(Aug 28) Templex Technology (Eugene, OR) won a Fast Track Phase 2 SBIR from BMDO for $1M to develop its TASM (Temporally Accessed, Spectral Multiplexing). If it works (if it already worked it wouldn't get a BMDO Phase 2), Templex's president Larry Brice expects a much higher reliability and a quarter lower cost for his terabit per fiber. Technicologically, it's a data storage application to demonstrate a new world's record for density bandwidth product -- 100,000 Terabits per square inch per second. Fast Track gives Templex $1M for $250K third party cash, presumably from the VC on the board. A Fiber Optics News story (Aug 25) quotes Ken Hill, who discovered photosensitivity in optical fiber and invented fiber Bragg gratings as It looks like a clever idea; it remains to be seen how broadly it can be applied. Isn't that always the story with new technology? See the technical stuff in a 39-slide presentation

Deca-Gigabyte Memory.(Jun 11) Tens of gigabytes memory at near semiconductor speed, orders of magnitude more than today's average, at a potential cost of half today's semiconductor memory, says Templex Technology (Eugene, OR) about its Phase 1 BMDO SBIR. (And DRAM is already so cheap that its makers are eating each other's lunch). It's the kind of SBIR that will be either a barn-burner or a burned-barn. If it works, and if it hits the market economics, it could explode into a giant market. It is will not just incrementally advance a someday-useful science (BMDO won't fund that kind of SBIR and neither will the Oregonian VC fund backer).

TerraMetrics (Littleton CO)

TerraMetrics (Littleton CO; $1M SBIR since 1999) won an Air Force Phase 1 SBIR for a system to provide a 3D terrain model for helicopter landings in dusty, desert areas with zero visibility, such as Iraq and Afghanistan. [Denver Post, Sep 11]

Tessera Technologies

Tessera Thera down 12% [Oct 15, 08]

Tessera Thera up 18% [Oct 13, 08]

Tessera Tech up 10% [Sep 30, 08]

Tessera Tech down 19% [Sep 29, 08]

Tessera Tech up 14% [Sep 18, 08]

Tessera Tech up 12% [Aug 1, 08]

Tessera up 33%, after the company said the International Trade Commission had overturned a judge's recent decision to stay a patent case against several wireless companies.  [Wall Street Journal, Mar 29]

Tessera Technologies down 18% [Mar 19, 08]

Tessera Technologies up 10%, after saying the status of some of its patents has been mischaracterized [Wall Street Journal, Mar 7, 08]

Tessera Technologies fell 39%. The Patent and Trademark Office made a preliminary ruling rejecting claims under a key patent of Tessera, a San Jose, Calif., maker of packaging technologies for chip makers.  [Wall Street Journal, Mar 5]

Tessera Technologies down 34% [Feb 26, 08] The company said a judge decided to stay the company's patent-infringement action before the International Trade Commission pending completion of re-examination proceedings before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. [Wall Street Journal, Feb 27]

Tessera Technologies up 11% [Feb 1. 08] after saying it would acquire FotoNation, which provides imaging technologies for digitial cameras and mobile devices. [Reuters, Feb 1]

Tessera Technologies down 15% [Aug 3, 07]

Theragenics (Atlanta, GA)

specialty needle maker NeedleTech Products (Attleboro, MA; no SBIR) has been sold to Theragenics (Atlanta, GA; one Phase 1 SBIR in 1987) medical device company, for $47.8 M cash, according to Theragenics company officials. NeedleTech, a privately held company, develops coaxial needles, biopsy needles, access trocars, brachytherapy needles, guidewire introducer needles, spinal needles, disposable veress needles and other needle-based products. Its products are intended for cardiology, orthopedics, pain management, endoscopy, spine, urology and veterinary markets. [Mass High Tech, Jul 18] Theragenics sells surgical products and trades on the NYSE.

Therametric Technologies (Indianapolis, IN)

Therametric Technologies (Indianapolis, IN; $1.3M SBIR) will launch a new cavity-fighting technology this fall, creating up to 50 jobs. [Indianapolis Star, May 15]

TherionBiologics

Vaccines Can Kill Business. Therion Biologics, a 15-year-old Cambridge company trying to develop a new breed of vaccines to fight cancer, will be shuttered and sold after its most promising drug candidate failed a pivotal human test .. In anticipation of succeeding with at least one of its vaccines, Therion had recently built a manufacturing facility in East Cambridge. [Stephen Heuser, Boston Globe, Jun 29]  Therion had one getting-started HHS SBIR Phase 2 in 1992. From a policy viewpoint, vaccines approach the true market-failure rationale for subsidies like SBIR since they usually have too low a profit potential for Big Pharma but have a huge societal payoff when they work (which is not very often). High risk, low profit, large societal gain.  True market failure should be distinguished from most of the mediocrity that SBIR is used for.

Thermacore (Lancaster, PA)

Modine Manufacturing has completed the sale of its Thermacore division, which makes cooling equipment for electronics, for $13.25 million. The buyer, FSBO Ventures, is owned by current and former members of Thermacore's management. The company based in Lancaster, Pa., has 179 employees, and had $32 million in sales in 2007. Modine acquired Thermacore in 2001. Based in Racine, Modine had $1.7 billion in sales in 2007. [Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, May 2, 08] Thermacore had $20M SBIR 1984-1995.

Thermage (Hayward, CA)

ThingMagic (Cambridge, MA; no SBIR)  closed a $9.5 million round of funding with which the RFID company has raised nearly $30 M since its inception in 2000. .... The 40-person company will use the new financing to expand its product development and penetrate new vertical markets  [Mass High Tech, Jul 11, 08]

Third Wave Technologies (Madison, WI)

Hologic will pay $580 M to acquire Third Wave Technologies (Madison, WI; $9M SBIR) in a deal pairing two developers of medical diagnostics technology. [Boston Globe, Jun 9, 08]

Third Wave Technologies rose 40% in heavy after-hours trading [Mar 11, 08], after the company said a clinical trial for a new test achieved its primary goal.  The test - which Third Wave has been developing for the last two years - is for human papillomavirus, or HPV, a cause of genital infections that might lead to cervical cancer. The company had devoted 80% of its research-and-development budget to creating the test.  [Kathleen Gallagher, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Mar 12]

Third Wave Technologies up 13% [Feb 26, 08]

Third Wave Technologies  reported progress in its efforts to sell products in the biggest potential market it has ever tackled. The Madison maker of genetic analysis products said it has signed up enough people to proceed with clinical trials for its human papillomavirus, or HPV, tests. [Kathleen Gallagher, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Jan 1]

Third Wave Technologies (Madison, WI; $4M SBIR)  got a $25 million, five-year line of credit from Deerfield Management of New York. The money will be used to further Third Wave's business of developing tests for the human papillomavirus. [Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Dec 10]

Third Wave Technologies up 11% [Dec 6, 07]

Third Wave Technologies up 25% after winning a patent court case.  [Jul 24, 07]

Third Wave Technologies agreed a private placement of about $14.9 M of debt with an unidentified institutional investor. [Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Dec 20]  It has had $4M in SBIR over a decade for its molecular diagnostics. Its stock price sits in the middle of its five-year range.

Thoratech Tech

Thoratech down 13% [Oct 27, 08]  said there was a wear-and-tear problem with its "HeartMate II" blood-pumping device.  [WSJ, Oct 28]

Thoratech  up 11% [Oct 10, 08]

Thoratech up 22% [Aug 1, 08]

Thorley Industries

Innovation Works, Hazelwood (PA) VC fund, in 2007 invested $6.1 M in technology companies, including its 100th investment.  The  specializes in giving a leg up to young technology companies cites three [no SBIR] success stories: Knopp Neurosciences, which is working on a drug therapy to slow the advance ALS ("Lou Gehrig's disease"). ... granted "orphan drug" status by the FDA ; Printed electronics manufacturer Plextronics, which attracted more than $20 M in new investment last year and set an efficiency record with its solar cells;  Thorley Industries signed a $215 M deal with Hasbro for that company to manufacture and sell a new line of Thorley products  [Elwin Greene, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 2].

Threshold Pharmaceuticals

Rolling Big Dice. Threshold Pharmaceuticals plunged 75% after the Food and Drug Administration halted clinical trials for the Redwood City, Calif., pharmaceutical company's enlarged-prostate drug, TH-070, because of cases of liver toxicity.

Tiax (Cambridge, MA)

Tiax (Cambridge, MA)reports it has granted an exclusive license covering its high-energy, high-performance cathode material to Canadian metal company CVRD Inco Ltd. for use in portable power applications. [MHT, Jul 11]

Tiax (Cambridge, MA; $10M SBIR) has been issued one patent and received one notice of allowance for its Cel-X battery control technology, ...  a low-cost, high-performance system designed to improve the safety, capacity and pack life of lithium-ion batteries through a nondissipative approach to regulating battery charge in lithium-ion batteries, [Mass High-Tech, Jun 21]

Tibbetts Industries (Camden, ME)

 Tibbetts Industries (Camden ME; one SBIR) is being bought by IntriCon , a Minnesota-based developer of miniature and microminiature medical and electronics products, for $4.5M. [Mass High Tech, Apr 20]

Tilera (Santa Clara, CA)

Tilera (Santa Clara, CA; no SBIR) has begun to ship a 64-core processor, promising dramatic advances in powering devices for the networking and multimedia industries. ... "It's a real disruptive technology," [founder MIT professor] Agarwal said last week. "We pretty much took a clean sheet of paper at MIT and said we're going to deliver a whole new architecture for chips." [Robt Weisman, Boston Globe, Aug 20]The technology got tens of millions of dollars from NSF and DARPA and then $40M VC for the company.

TLC Precision Wafer (Minneapolis, MN)

If there's a single element of the classic entrepreneur story missing from Tim Childs' seven-year battle to build his small, high-tech company, I've been unable to find it. There were the sacrifices. ... There were the lean times. ... ... And the numbing work schedule. ... Childs, 38, is founder and president of TLC Precision Wafer Technology , a north Minneapolis company that is one of just six firms worldwide capable of supplying gallium arsenide and indium phosphide wafers to the semiconductor industry. ... a steadily growing business that should post sales of nearly $2 million this year, up more than 20 percent from $1.6 million in 1997. The company, which has 18 employees, has been profitable for the past four years ... All of which leaves an intriguing question: How come a poor kid from Miami, the last of eight children in a family headed by a part-time preacher and intermittent mechanic, truck driver and small businessman, wind up with a career in physics? More curious, how does an above-average athlete -- Childs, a linebacker who was defensive captain of his Florida A&M football team -- end up in such an arcane field? "My dad was always giving me thinking problems," Childs said. "He'd say, 'Use your brain, figure things out.' I found that physics gave me the tools to understand how the world around me works. "I just love the science." [Minneapolis Star Tribune, Aug 16] Black jocks do have a life after football. SBIR barely helped with about $1.5M since 1993: 10 Phase 1s and 1 NASA Phase 2.

TomoTherapy (Madison, WI)

TomoTherapy up 11% [Oct 30, 08]

TomoTherapy down 11% [Oct 24, 08]

TomoTherapy down 14% [Oct 22, 08]

TomoTherapy up 34% [Oct 20, 08]

TomoTherapy up 14% [Oct 16, 08]

TomoTherapy down 10% [Oct 15, 08]

Tomotherapy down 11% [Oct 8, 08]

Tomotherapy down 11% [Oct 8, 08]

TomoTherapy rose as much as 12% after it said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved its TomoDirect technology, a complement to its Hi-Art radiation therapy system.  [Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Aug 28]  

TomoTherapy down 49% [Aug 1, 08] after it reported a net loss of $6.9 million in the second quarter, a sharp increase from comparative results a year ago, and said it was removing $53 million in orders from its backlog. [Business Journal of Milwaukee]

TomoTherapy surprised Wall Street by lowering its guidance for results in the first quarter and for the year.  The Madison maker of radiation therapy systems said longer-than-expected timeframes on certain installations and sluggish European sales have it anticipating revenue of $255 million to $290 million and earnings per share in the range of 14 cents to 33 cents for the year.   [Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Apr 18, 08]  down 32%

Cashing In. Existing shareholders of TomoTherapy will sell $180M worth of their shares next week which is about 15% above the IPO price. [Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Oct 12]

TomoTherapy (Madison WI; one Phase 2 SBIR) shares closed down 8% after it announced plans to sell another 10M shares to the public. [Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Sep 22]

Tomotherapy which IPO'd May 9,07 is trading about 20% above the IPO price.

Tomotherapy (Middleton WI; one Phase 2 SBIR) might raise as much as $200 million for the 10-year-old maker of what some have called a revolutionary system for delivering radiation to cancer patients ... had nearly 500 employees in December, and it expects to report $50 million to $52 million of revenue for the first quarter, [Kathleen Gallagher, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, May 7]

TomoTherapy(Madison WI, one Phase 2 SBIR) filed to go public to raise $200M. It makes a highly precise system (sub-millimeter accuracy) for treating cancer with radiation [Rick Rommel, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Feb 13]

TranS1 (Wilmington NC)

TranS1 (Wilmington NC; no SBIR) did an $82M IPO after which the shares jumped 60%. ... focused on developing innovative, minimally invasive surgical procedures for treatment of low back pain (LBP). [company website]

TransEnterix (Durham, NC)

 TransEnterix (Durham, NC; no SBIR) raised $21M in VC to chase every surgeon's dream: to cure without cutting.... is a brain child of Synecor, a business incubator that spun out of Duke University seven years ago to turn medical device ideas into money makers. [Sabine Vollmer, Raleigh News&Observer, Jan 8, 08]

Transmeta (Santa Clara, CA)

Transmeta gained, however. The shares jumped 9.75 to 13.93 after the computer-chip developer struck a licensing deal with Intel, settling all outstanding patent disputes.  [WSJ, Oct 25]

Transmeta (Santa Clara, CA; no SBIR (too secret)) fell 18% after the semiconductor company launched a plan for a $12.8 M follow-on share and warrants offering.  [Wall Street Journal, Sep 22]

TransMolecular (Cambridge, MA)

The FDA granted TransMolecular (Cambridge, MA, originally Birmingham AL; $1M SBIR) its "orphan drug" designation for the non-radiolabeled version of TransMolecular's anti-cancer compound TM601, which is entering clinical trials for the treatment of the brain cancer known as malignant glioma, company officials say.  [Mass High Tech, Jan 7, 08]

For 11 years, TransMolecular (Cambridge, MA; $1M SBIR in Alabama) has been working on a promising brain cancer treatment from a substance found in scorpion venom.  ... already raised $43 M VC, hopes to raise additional funding as it embarks on pivotal clinical trials. ... one of about three dozen local biotech companies slated to speak at the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council's annual investor conference in Boston ... And ready money is available: According to Ernst & Young, the US biotech industry raised $14B in financing through the first half of the year, putting it on pace to beat the 2006 total by 40%. [Todd Wallack, Boston Globe, Nov 5]

TransTech Pharma (High Point, NC)

Jobs. A clinical-stage pharmaceutical company and its spinoff company will invest $23M in High Point with plans to create 205 jobs within five years. The majority of the jobs will come from TransTech Pharma (High Point, NC; $1.4M SBIR), and PharmaCore will bring about 50 positions. If TransTech creates all its jobs and sustains them for 12 years, it could receive up to $6.57 M in benefits under the state Job Development Investment Grants program. [Raleigh News&Observer, Dec 21]

Transzyme Pharma (Durham NC)

Three deep-pocketed investors are betting $20M on Transzyme Pharma (Durham NC; no SBIR; 44 employees) that is working on treatments for serious constipation. It's the trio's second large investment in Transzyme in three years. ... targeting gastrointestinal treatments was a calculated decision, Garg said. Few competitors exist for innovative gastrointestinal medicines. [Raleigh News&Observer, Nov 1]

TrellisBioscience (South San Francisco CA)

Trellis Bioscience (South San Francisco CA, $0.5M SBIR) that monitors cells at the individual level to assess what sort of treatments to give people, said it has raised $10M in a second round of financing. ...  Novartis Bioventures led the round [Venture Beat, Feb 14]

Trex Enterprises (San Diego CA)

Efficient Ears. On average, companies generated roughly $28 in earmark revenue for every dollar they spent lobbying. By any standard, that's a hefty ratio: The companies in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index brought in just $17.52 in revenues for every dollar of capital expenditure in 2006. ... Says Keith Ashdown, chief investigator for the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense: "The lion's share of these projects is about politics and jobs, rather than real needs." [Business Week, Sep 17]  The earmark efficiency champ is an SBIR company, Scientific Research (Atlanta GA and others; about $15M SBIR), that got $344 in earmarked funds per dollar of political "investment".Other SBIR investors: Isothermal Systems (KY and WA; $2M SBIR) at $221 per lobbying dollar; Prologic (Fairmont WV; $2M SBIR) at $133 per dollar; Trex Enterprises (San Diego CA; $7M SBIR) at $116 per dollar. From an efficiency viewpoint, politicians make a good investment. You just have to learn how to kiss frogs.

Trident Systems

On May 10, 2006, Team Submarine (Team Sub) awarded Trident Systems a contract worth $50M for the delivery of Shipboard Mobile Computing Engineering Model under the SBIR program. This award represents the billionth dollar that Team Sub has awarded under the SBIR program, in Phase IIIs alone, since it began more than a decade ago. Says the Navy's Summer 2006 Transitions, now on the Navy SBIR website.  Trident knows how to play the game with at least 109 Phase 1s since 1989 and 33 Phase 2s, several over $1M. The Navy SBIR puts great weight on the companies' connecting with and serving Navy programs.  How much is innovation and how much is plain vanilla R&D service is left for the Navy programs to decide.  Which seems to work just fine for the goal of spending SBIR on things the Navy wants while the Navy sees no other worthwhile goals for its SBIR.

Trimeris  (Morrisville NC)

Trimeris up 12% [Oct 23, 08]

Trimeris down 12% [Oct 3, 08]

Trimeris down 12% [Oct 3, 08]

Trimeris up 16% [Sep 18, 08]

Trimeris  down 13% [Sep 17, 08]

Trimeris down 12% [Jun 23, 08]

The quarterly earnings report Thursday from Trimeris -- once among the Triangle's most promising biotechnology companies -- could be one of its last.  After laying off all but 10 employees, winding down research and development and putting the company's Morrisville laboratory up for lease, the money managers and investment firms that make up Trimeris' board have decided to begin disbursing one of the company's remaining assets -- $80 million in cash and cash equivalents. .... At its peak, Trimeris employed about 150 people, before Fuzeon failed to meet expectations  [Raleigh News & Observer, May 9, 08]

Too Much Competition. Trimeris down after reporting that first-quarter sales of its Fuzeon AIDS drug dropped 34%. ... Other drugs to treat HIV and AIDS have eclipsed Fuzeon, including new products from Pfizer and Merck that became available last year. ... The stock began trading publicly in 1997 and soared above $70 in 2000, largely on the potential of the company's revolutionary medicine to treat AIDS. But patients and physicians balked at the drug's high cost and painful daily injections. ... down from 150 workers to 10   [Alan Wolf, Raleigh News & Observer, Apr 18, 08]

After being loved and left several times in the past decade, a sizable Morrisville (NC) building is on the rebound, in search of someone who will appreciate it for what it is on the inside: a lab. Trimeris, a once-promising drug developer, is trying to sub-sublease its 61,000-square-foot research facility  ...  The Triangle is teeming with hungry lab hunters at a time when other sectors are expanding cautiously, if at all.  [Jack Hagel, Raleigh News & Observer, Apr 14]

Dani Bolognesi will take another run at developing a novel, blockbuster drug, an accomplishment that eluded him when he led Trimeris. As chief executive and chairman of B3Bio, a startup, Bolognesi is looking for a new class of medicines that promises to better treat cancer, inflammation and infection. At Trimeris, a troubled Morrisville drug development company, Bolognesi had a similar goal with AIDS drug Fuzeon. [Sabine Vollmer, Raleigh News&Observer, Mar 12, 08]

Price Too Dear. AIDS drug company Trimeris (Morrisville NC) plans to halt its research and development efforts and lay off its R&D staffers next year. The new strategy announced after the markets closed Monday follows last month's appointment of a new CEO -- the company's fourth chief executive in the past year -- and a steady stream of turmoil. ...Trimeris' AIDS drug Fuzeon has racked up disappointing sales, partially as a result of its steep price tag of about $20,000 a year [David Ranii, Raleigh News&Observer, Dec 11]

Trimeris generated third-quarter earnings that trounced analysts' estimates. The company mostly credited higher overseas sales of its HIV/AIDS drug Fuzeon for a 61%earnings increase from the same period a year ago. [Raleigh News&Observer, Nov 9, 07]

The short-time CEO and CFO at Trimeris are departing as allegedly planned after they did their six-month job of creating a blueprint for developing a new AIDS drug, TRI-1144. Meanwhile,  HealthCor -- now the company's largest shareholder with a stake of nearly 18% -- has urged the company to halt development of a new drug and consider putting itself up for sale. [Raleigh News&Observer, Oct 12]

Trimeris and its Swiss partner Roche said that they will withdraw an application to sell HIV/AIDS drug Fuzeon in a needle-free device. ...the FDA, concerned that the device could cause nerve pain and bruising, delayed approval and asked for additional data.  [Raleigh News& Observer, Oct 4]

Over the past two months, a New York investment firm has bought more than 9 percent of Trimeris shares, filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission show. HealthCor Management, which has more than $1.8 billion under management, isn't saying what it plans to do with its stake in the struggling Morrisville drug company.  Trimeris executives aren't returning calls. [Raleigh News & Observer, Aug 10]

 CEO by the Hour. Two top executive positions [filled by outside consultants] at Trimeris, the struggling Morrisville NC company that specializes in AIDS treatments, will be paid on an hourly basis for as long as another 16 months ... Company officials did not return phone calls, and an analyst who follows Trimeris said it isn't clear what strategy the firm is trying to pursue. [Raleigh News & Observer, Aug 8, 07]

Trimeris up 11%  [Aug 8, 07]

Less Acceleration. Trimeris, the troubled Durham company that markets the AIDS treatment Fuzeon with its Swiss partner Roche, reported that worldwide sales increases for Fuzeon slowed in the first quarter. [Raleigh News & Observer, Apr 18] Trees don't grow to the sky.

Trimeris up 15% on hot quarter revenue. [Apr 18, 07]

Trimeris plunged 29% on the the resignation of CEO/CSO and CFO and termination of an R&D deal with Roche. [Mar 16, 07]

Trimeris up 20% on news of reshuffling of emphasis and some people. [Nov 15, 06] 

Trimeris shot up 23% on news of greatly improved profits fueled by the growth in sale of its HIV drug Fuzeon [Nov 8, 06]

Trimeris shares dove 13% after the company lowered sales projections for its AIDS drug Fuzeon. Even so, it expects to post yearly profit for the first time since beginning operations 13 years ago. [David Ranii, Raleigh News and Observer, Oct 12] Trimeris had one Phase 2 SBIR in 1997.

Triquint Semiconductor

Triquint up 14% [Oct 28, 08]

Triquint up 11% [Oct 16, 08]

Triquint down 14% [Oct 15, 08]

Triquint up 11% [Oct 13, 08]

TriQuint down 18% [Oct 7, 08]

TriQuint down 18% [Oct 7, 08]

TriQuint up 11% [Feb 25, 08]

Triquint up 11% [Oct 31, 07]

Triquint Semiconductor up 15% [Oct 25, 07] after the company reported a 19 percent jump in third-quarter revenue

Triton Systems (Chelmsford, MA)

Triton Systems (Chelmsford, MA) got Israeli VC financing to spin off three new companies, Elecon, Sensera, and Tribond. Elecon will sell TOR-CPä conductive polymers for the electronics marketplace. Sensera will sell electronic sensors to monitor and detect chemical and bio-contamination in fluids with Triton’s conductive polymer film technology. TriBond will sell Smart-Bond, a temperature-controlled welding/sealing technology using radio frequency (RF) energy. Privately-owned Triton Systems claims to have grown 45% annually since its founding in 1992 by Ross Haighihat who left SBIR-champ Foster-Miller.

Triton Systems (Chelmsford, MA) ... is a "creative explosion." The materials product and process development firm recently launched three new spin-off companies and met with members of the Senate Small Business Committee last week to present its new products. ... the gurgling test tubes and grunting machines are churning out polymers. Triton specializes in using nanotechnology methods to create lightweight, durable plastic products for the military, aerospace and commercial industries. Its NanoTuf protective polymer coatings are used on military visors and windshields, and its materials have been used for everything from automotive parts to space suits. The company creates military food trays that can withstand a fall from a helicopter, and its durable plastic capsules are used to hold helium on Converse's line of helium running shoes. Triton also produces an award-winning space-shielding material that enables spacecrafts to survive up to 10 times longer in orbit. .. SBIR has been one of Triton's primary financial supporters since the company was founded in 1992. ... Chief Operating Officer David Model said most ideas take many years to develop into products. Some work, and some don't, he said. "But you just keep trying." Triton is also working on four other potential spinoffs currently in incubation. The company has seen 45% annual growth, Model said, and he anticipates revenues in the area of $8M this year. Triton started with three staff members and currently employs more than 50, with plans to hire 20 more by year's end. The plan is to continue to expand Triton's commercial products and eventually go public, Model said. "Our goal is to no longer need SBIR," he said. [Peter Key, Staff Writer, Lowell Sun]. Triton was founded by a former SBIR user at Foster-Miller, the going-away SBIR champ at gathering funds.

More is Less. A venture between Israeli investment group KPP Investments and Triton Systems (Chelmsford MA; 181 Phase 1s and $55M Phase 2 SBIR) has yielded a new company, FRX Polymers LLC in Chelmsford, is expected to work to commercialize a new family of flame retardant polyphosphonate homopolymers and copolymers. [Mass High Tech, Sep 28] Great fire, but after how much government kerosene? When should the government say enough, or at least keep raising the barrier to new projects? A progressive barrier makes the company reach farther for either highly disruptive new technology or for proof of market validation of the company's technical successes. Well, as long as the agencies are forced to divert a noticeable percentage of their R&D budgets into political programs, the more pressure they feel to take it back in the form of contracts to do what they would have done if the money had not been sequestered. When SBIR was only 1.25% of extramural spending, it could focus on truly inventive stuff. Raising it to 2.5% and then plumping for even more forced it into the same mold as all other R&D programs in the mission agencies. Triton Systems (Chelmsford, MA) acquired Israel-based Ceramight for an undisclosed amount, and has combined it with its extreme environmental composites group to form a new subsidiary called Ceracom Inc. [Mass High Tech, Apr 2]

Triton Systems is selling a nanoengineered plastic pouch for use as a helium-filled heel cushion in Converse Helium sneakers sold in Japan and China. Trition uses an additive of clay nanoparticles to tighten the molecular structure of the pouch, allowing it to trap the helium underfoot for a minimum of 18 months, said Ross Haghighat, Triton's CEO. [Boston Globe, Sep 10]

Trubion Pharmaceuticals

Trubion Pharma down 16% [Oct 8, 08]

Trubion Pharma down 16% [Oct 8, 08]

Trubion Pharmaceuticals said that it’s won a preliminary patent skirmish in Europe.  .... the Opposition Division of the European Patent Office has revoked a Genentech Inc. and Biogen Idec Inc. patent for a rheumatoid arthritis treatment antibody.  [Puget Sound Business Journal, Sep 11]

Trubion Pharma  up 13% [Sep 18, 08]

Trubion Pharma down 14% [Sep 8, 08]

Trubion Pharma up 11% [Sep 5, 08]

Trubion Pharma up 15% [Jul 11,08]

Trubion Pharma down 10% [Jun 23, 08]

Trubion Pharmaceuticals up 13% said that Wyeth has exercised its option under the terms of its collaboration agreement with Trubion to extend the research period for an additional one-year period. [press release, Jun 19, 08]

Trubion Pharmaceuticals  down 14% [Jun 6, 08]

Trubion Pharmaceuticals  up 10% [May 27, 08]

Trubion Pharmaceuticals down 20% [Apr 22, 08] after it launched a new clinical trial of a rheumatoid arthritis drug with partner Wyeth

Trubion Pharmaceuticals up 13% [Apr 18, 08]

Trubion Pharma up 12% [Apr 16, 08]

Trubion Pharmaceuticals up 14% [Apr 10, 08]

Trubion Pharmaceuticals up 10% [Mar 31, 08] after a downgrade recommendation.

Trubion Pharmaceuticals down 15% [Mar 28, 08] and down 47% over 52 weeks.

Trubion Pharmaceuticals up 22% [Mar 20, 08]

Trubion Pharmaceuticals down 19% [Mar 17, 08]

Trubion up 22% [Mar 11, 08]

Trubion Pharmaceuticals  down 10% [Feb 14, 08]

Trubion Pharmaceuticals up 15% [Feb 13, 08]

Trubion Pharmaceuticals up 10% [Feb 6, 08]

Trubion Pharmaceuticals down 12% [Feb 5, 08]

Trubion Pharmaceuticals up 13% [Jan 25, 08]

Trubion Pharmaceuticals (one SBIR) up 20% [Jul 25, 07] and 54% for 52 weeks.

Tryton Medical (Newton, MA

Tryton Medical (Newton, MA; no SBIR, founded 2003), a developer of coronary stents, reports it has raised $14 Min a Series C VC round. [Mass High Tech, Apr 1, 08]

UltraCell

UltraCell (Livermore, CA; no SBIR) has developed a 25 watt fuel cell that can power the military's rugged laptops for up to eight hours on eight-and-a-half ounces of methanol. Intrigued, DARPA and the Army CERDEC have granted UltraCell a follow-on contract to refine their fuel cell tech for laptop-toting soldiers in the field. [Matt Safford, Extreme Tech, Jun 24, 08]  Note that it needs an ounce of methanol per hour which has to be transported from Kuwait to the forward bases and somehow mated with the power supply.

Kaschmitter Still in Power. Energy source isn't powering cars as expected, but startups, others making progress on smaller scale. UltraCell Corp (no SBIR) plans to open its plant this week ... near Dayton OH. ... CEO Jim Kaschmitter was a researcher at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories in California before he started UltraCell in 2002. [Austin American-Statesman, Sep 9, 07] In between, he was also CEO and President at PowerStor and PolyStor Corporations.  PolyStor (Dublin, CA; one Phase 2 SBIR) was to become the first American manufacturer to mass produce rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, powering millions of wireless phones and laptop computers.... PolyStor has spun off a second company, PowerStor (no SBIR), that will focus on super capacitors that can quickly discharge far more energy than those now on the market. PolyStor has also signed a $9.5 million contract to develop and deliver batteries for hybrid electric cars, which will run on a combination of battery power and gasoline. And bicycles may be next.  [East Bay Business Times, Nov 1998]  The Commerce ATP Program reports that PowerStor licensed aerogel capacitor technology from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. PowerStor overcame financial barriers to constructing production facilities by manufacturing its aerogel ultracapacitor products by hand in Malaysia.  Cooper Electronic Technologies acquired PowerStor when the parent company, PolyStor, folded [Missile Defense Agency 2003 Technology Applications Report: Electrical, Electronic, and Magnetic Devices] (Note: Unlike the other SBIR programs, MDA's Tech App program keeps up with company developments that come from its SBIR investments.) and that In 2000, PolyStor won an award from the Advanced Technology Program to help develop a safe, ultrahigh capacity next-generation rechargeable battery based on Li-ion polymer gel technology. After suffering a sharp decline in demand for its products in 2001, tied to a global decline in the demand for cell phones, PolyStor ceased operations in 2002. [Source: Steve Peng. "Mold to Fit Battery." Edgereview]

Ultralife (born Ultralife Batteries)

Ultralife up 19% [Oct 28, 08]

Ultralife up 12% [Oct 16, 08]

Ultralife down 11% [Oct 15, 08]

Ultralife down 10% [Oct 7, 08]

Ultralife down 12% [Oct 2, 08]

Ultralife down 10% [Oct 7, 08]

Ultralife down 12% [Oct 2, 08]

Ultralife down 19% [Sep 29, 08]

Ultralife up 13% [Sep 18, 08]

A boosted outlook helped shares of Ultralife Batteries, which gained 31%. ... raised its second-quarter and full-year revenue forecasts [Wall Street Journal, May 30]

Ultralife up 16% [May 1, 08]

Ultralife down 15% [Mar 28, 08]

Ultralife up 13% [Mar 27, 08]

Ultralife down 17% [Feb 15, 08]

Ultralife down 14% [Jan 30, 08]

Ultralife down 17% [Jan 11, 08]

Ultralife Batteries (Newark, NY) up 17% on a $40M order [Dec 26, 07] after it said that revenue will soar to a record high next year.

Ultralife Batteries up 12% [Sep 27, 07]

Ultralife Batteries dipped 12% on a dipping forecast of a quarterly loss. [Oct 26. 06]

Ultramet (Pacoima, CA)

Ultramet Wins Again(Sep19) Ultramet (Pacoima, CA) won $175K develop a spin-off application for cutting-edge coatings for the drilling industry. The money comes from the Los Angeles Regional Technology Alliance to help companies compete for federal funding (love that interstate competition). Help? Hah! Ultramet should have been on the selection committee. Ultramet's $15M puts it in the top twenty SBIR winners - the premier federal money for start-up companies. This time Ultramet got a nudge from BMDO, one of Ultramet's generous suppliers of SBIR funds, in the form of a nomination to LARTA through an experiment by BMDO's Technology Applications program (one of the government's best) with the National Association of State Development Agencies (NASDA). While BMDO's motive was to help its SBIR companies succeed in real life (and get off the federal handout), I wonder if BMDO knew what reinforcement of dependency it was risking. The similar grant to Aguila (San Marcos, CA), in San Diego's competition, makes a lot more sense if the objective is to give the fledgling most-likely-to-succeed California companies a one-time hand in the federal competition. Ah well, I suppose I have to share LARTA's blame since I gave Ultramet a lot of that SBIR money over the last decade. None of the other winners is an SBIR junkie (uh, veteran).

UNIAX (Santa Barbara, CA)

Nobel Prize touches SBIR company(Oct 11) One of the Nobel laureates in chemistry was Alan Heeger, of the University of California-Santa Barbara, who did the chemistry of conductive plastics that became the bedrock of UNIAX that Heeger co-founded. Its first Phase 2 SBIR came from - you guessed it - BMDO in 1992.

Uniax bought.(Apr 24) DuPont bought UNIAX (Santa Barbara, CA) for the world’s first polymer-OLED (organic light-emitting diode) displays. Poly-OLEDs are critical to developing brighter, lower cost and lightweight displays for use in wireless devices, such as cell phones and personal digital assistants. Price unnamed. Dr. Nick Colaneri, Director of New Technology at UNIAX said, A complete OLED display is less than 2 mm thick and weighs about 1/10 oz. Current display prototypes have in excess of 25,000 pixels, suitable for wireless Internet applications. The displays are daylight readable, and capable of displaying full motion video. UNIAX Corporation started in 1990 with conducting polymer technology developed by Dr. Alan Heeger and licensed from the UCSB. UNIAX got its start as an SBIR Phase 2 from (who else?) BMDO in 1992 and has had seven Phase 2s, three from BMDO. No more SBIR, now, of course, for a subsidiary of a 94000-employee company. UNIAX got its start as a Phase 2 recipient of (who else?) BMDO.

Lighted SiliconPaint a few lines on the silicon surface and overcoat them with the magic polymer, activate the circuit in the silicon with less than 4V and Voila - The Polymer Shines. Not just any polymer though. UNIAX Corp (Santa Barbara, CA) owns the right shiny polymer with which it reported the Light Emitting Electrochemical Cell in Science 1995 after its 1994 Phase 1 BMDO SBIR. UNIAX sees this set-up pushing aside two presently pursued technologies: light emitting epitaxial layers like AlGaAs/GaAs, and porous silicon. (When will these technology advances stop obsoleting DOD's investments? Can't we halt the sledgehammer of progress and return to an orderly world?) Since then it has attracted well over $1M beyond the SBIR subsidy plus one large chemical company is putting in a new $1M. The professor-started company has now got a business type CEO, Jim Long, a sine qua non for business success.

Unica

Unica down 13% [Oct 24, 08]

Unica down 11% [Oct 22, 08]

Unica down 11% [Oct 17, 08]

Unica up 18% [Oct 16, 08]

Unica up 10% [Oct 10, 08]

Unica down 10% [Oct 14, 08]

Unica down 11% [Oct 2, 08]

Unica down 11% [Oct 2, 08]

Unica up 12% [Sep 18, 08]

 Unica down 10%  [Mar 6, 08]

Unica up 10% [Feb 13, 08]

Unica down 10% [Jan 4, 08] 

Unica up 15% [Dec 6, 07]

(Menlo Park, CA)

Nano IPOs. NANOTECHNOLOGY companies, nurtured on billions of dollars in government grants and venture investments through most of this decade, are getting ready to go public. ... NanoGram (Milpitas, CA; no SBIR), Unidym (Menlo Park, CA; no SBIR), NanoDynamics (Buffalo, NY; $1M SBIR).    Unidym is a subsidiary of the Arrowhead Research Corporation, a public investment company that was founded in 2003 to back small companies engaged in nanotechnology research. [James Flanigan, New York Times, Dec 20]

United Devices (Austin TX)

United Devices (Austin TX; no SBIR) which develops software for powerful grids of individual computers, announced today that it has merged with a Chicago company, Univa, which develops related technology, No financial terms were disclosed. [Austin American-Statesman, Sep 18]

Universal Display

Universal Display down 13% [Oct 15, 08]

Universal Display down 21% [Sep 29, 08]

Universal Display up 13% [Sep 16, 08]

 Organic light-emitting diodes have surpassed fluorescent lights in energy efficiency, according to Universal Display [which] announced it has created an OLED panel that produces 102 lumens, a measure of light output, per watt of electrical power. ...There are plenty of problems still to straighten out with OLEDs before they're practical light sources. The panels dim with a few hundred or thousand hours of use and they're difficult to produce in large quantities. [AP, Jun 23,08]

Universal Display down 12% [Mar 14, 08] after it reported a bigger loss wider than the Street expected.

Universal Display up 10% [Feb 13, 08]

Universal Display down 12% [Jan 8, 08]

Universal Display up 10% on a broker's upgrade. [Jun 19, 07]

Universal Display has not turned a profit. It has lost about $125M since its founding in 1994. ..It has no plans to manufacture products. Instead it will license its [OLED] technology to companies around the world. [Henry Holcomb, Philadelphia Inquirer, reprinted by Seattle Times, Feb 26] Holcomb's hopeful tale never mentions about $8M in SBIR.

Universal Display was up 10% after announcing a big improvement in operational lifetime for a green phosphorescent OLED device [Dec 27, 06]

US Nanocorp (Farmington, CT)

US Nanocorp (Farmington, CT; no previous SBIR)  has a lithium-air battery in which the inspiration for the membrane came from artificial-blood research that produced a material that can carry oxygen. It also has a commercialization partner for its Phase II project in Ultralife Batteries, a major battery manufacturer that pledged $150,000 to help defray some development costs.  [MDA Tech Update, Summer 08]

US Silicones

US Silicones, a start-up supplier of compounded silicone rubber materials for the medical, industrial, automotive and home appliance markets, will locate its manufacturing operations in Fort Wayne. The company, formed by Fort Wayne-based executive management firm Thistle Group, will invest more than $1.1 million to upgrade an existing 15,000 square-foot facility [Indianapolis Star, May 2, 08]

UTRON (Manassas, VA)

Parts from Powder(Mar 20) BMDO SBIR company Utron (Manassas, VA) got some big press - a front page Wall Street Journal (Mar 19)- for its quick powder compaction into small parts. The competition will be fierce though from the many other powder pressers who want the Holy Grail of parts making - instant shape and properties to order. Inventors over the years have thought of many ways to press a powder into some wanted shape. Utron has had only one Phase 2 SBIR (BMDO) and that was for spraying powders rather than compressing them. Pressing powders is the kind of economics-driven SBIR that BMDO likes because it is likely to develop into a market-shelf technology that BMDO's system builders can get a free ride on private capital for their small scale developments done for them. Private capital is happy to oblige for the profit to be made in selling it to everyone except BMDO. Co-founders Dennis Massey and Doug Witherspoon say the phone was ringing yesterday. Doug is also a leader in a DC area tech entrepreneurs' network.

Valence Technology (Austin, TX)

Lithium Hope and Despair.  don't expect the standard lithium ion batteries found in most laptops to go away anytime soon.  "It's not going to happen," acknowledged Jim Akridge, who has spent more than 25 years in the battery business. As the CEO of Valence Technology (Austin TX), Akridge runs one of several companies that have developed what they say are safer alternatives to traditional computer batteries. Valence's products use a proprietary chemical mix of lithium and phosphates designed to keep from overheating and catching on fire. ...  Ross Dueber is more confident. He says the battery technology developed by his company, Zinc Matrix Power, will eventually replace lithium ion. But although Zinc Matrix Power has existed since 1997, it hasn't been able to make any inroads with computer makers. Until it does, it probably won't even consider making its batteries on a wide scale, Dueber said. [Bob Keefe, Austin American-Statesman, Oct 17]

Validity Sensors (San Jose, CA)

Validity Sensors, San Jose start-up the builds advanced fingerprint sensors, has raised $20 million in its latest round of venture capital, in what appears to be a formal financial restart of the company. The round included a “substantial investment” from Qualcomm Ventures, according to the company, which suggests the company’s technology will soon be used for mobile phones. [Venturebeat.com, Oct 17]  Venture Beat is Matt Marshall's new site since he left the San Jose Mercury for greener pastures. No SBIRs.'

VasoGenix Pharmaceuticals (Lenexa, KS)

The Kansas Bioscience Authority announced four grants totaling $4.85 million to help companies in the state. KC BioMediX of De Soto, VasoGenix Pharmaceuticals of Lenexa , Ventria Bioscience of Junction City ($500K SBIR), MGP Ingredients (public) of Atchison. [Kansas City Business Journal, Jul 15, 08]

Vativ Technologies (San Diego, CA)

 San Diego's Entropic Communications has purchased a small semiconductor company whose chips help move high-definition television signals between the TV and other gadgets.   Vativ Technologies (San Diego, CA; no SBIR) had raised about $37M in VC since it was founded in 2001.  [Mike Freeman, San Diego Union-Tribune, Apr 5]

VaxGen

After failing to make an effective HIV vaccine and losing its $877M federal contract to make an anthrax vaccine, VaxGen said its last-ditch effort to save itself through a merger has foundered and its days may be numbered. [Steve Johnson, San Jose Mercury News, Mar 29]

A Shot Too Far. The government killed VaxGen's $877M anthrax vaccine contract because the company had not started the clinical trials. Since VaxGen won the contract two years ago, skeptics have questioned the ability of the company, a small biotechnology business, to deliver on such a large order, as well as the administration’s capacity to properly manage the overall $5.6B program, known as BioShield. [Eric Lipton, New York Times, Dec 20] VaxGen had a $2M SBIR from HHS plus another $700K in SBIR awards. The stock price has dropped 90% in two years. It's a huge leap from a $2M SBIR to $877M with the government customer watching every move.

When FDA halted the VaxGen anthrax vaccine approval train because data submitted by the company are insufficient to determine that the product is stable enough to resume clinical testing, the investors jumped off. Down 56%. [Nov 3, 06]

Vecna Technologies (College Park, MD)

wounded soldiers may be carried off the battlefield in the metallic arms of a BEAR, Battlefield Extraction-Assist Robot, a humanoid-shaped rescue machine being designed by Vecna Technologies (College Park, MD; $3M SBIR so far, mostly a $2.7M Phase 2 unrelated to robots). the robot is built for a variety of lifesaving tasks. ... iRobot is also working on a machine to rescue wounded soldiers. But the iRobot Warrior can do considerably more  [Hiawatha Bray (usually writes for Boston Globe), The Oregonian, May 17]

Ventria Bioscience (Junction City, KS)

The Kansas Bioscience Authority announced four grants totaling $4.85 million to help companies in the state. KC BioMediX of De Soto, VasoGenix Pharmaceuticals of Lenexa , Ventria Bioscience of Junction City ($500K SBIR), MGP Ingredients (public) of Atchison. [Kansas City Business Journal, Jul 15, 08]

Veracode (Burlington, MA)

Security testing company Veracode (Burlington, MA; founded 2006, no SBIR) has reported a financing agreement with investment firm In-Q-Tel that will allow Veracode grow its subscription-based application security solutions. In-Q-Tel is the venture arm of the CIA. Veracode’s security threat detection service, called SecurityReview, can find security holes from SQL injection, cross-site scripting, malicious code and buffer overflows using its static binary testing technology and never accessing a company’s source code.  [Mass High-Tech, Jul 30, 08]  $19.5 million in funding from lead investors. [company website]

Verax Biomedical (Worcester, MA)

Verax Biomedical (Worcester, MA; $1M SBIR) got clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to market its test for detecting bacterial contamination in the U.S. blood supply [Mass High Tech, Sep 20, 07]

Verax Biomedical (Worcester, MA; $1M+ SBIR) asked the FDA to approve marketing its Platelet Pan Genera Detection Test for bacterial contaminants in blood.  In 2006, Abbott Diagnostics signed a worldwide exclusive agreement to market and distribute the test, and British Biocell International (BBI) signed a 10-year contract to provide manufacturing. [Mass High Tech, Mar 14]

Verenium (Cambridge, MA)

Cellulosic biofuels technology developer Verenium (no SBIR) is one of two companies slated to receive part of a $40 million grant aimed at fostering the development of small-scale ethanol plants announced today by the DOE.  [Mass High Tech, Jul 16]

Verenium (Cambridge, MA; no SBIR) is starting up a research ethanol plant that runs on agricultural waste and wood products instead of corn. The demonstration-scale plant in Jennings, LA., is designed to run on cellulosic feedstocks such as stems and leaves, which are also known as "nonfood biomass," the alternative energy company said. [Boston Globe, May 28]

Vertex Pharmaceuticals

Vertex Pharma up 11% [Oct 30, 08]

Vertex Pharma down 10% [Oct 15, 08]

Vertex Pharma up 14% [Oct 13, 08]

Vertex Pharma up 16% [Sep 24, 08] after the biotechnology company provided details that reaffirmed prior positive study results for its hepatitis C drug candidate telaprevir. [AP]

Vertex Pharmaceuticals plans to sell 7.5 million shares of its common stock, valued at a total of $191.3 million according to company officials  [Mass High Tech, Sep 18, 08]

Vertex Pharmaceuticals said it has received regulatory approval to begin a late-stage trial of its experimental hepatitis C drug telaprevir in patients who have failed previous treatments. [Boston Globe, Aug 20, 08]

Vertex Pharmaceuticals said its hepatitis C drug candidate telaprevir was both safe and prompted a response in patients during a midstage study. [Boston Globe, Aug 1, 08]

Vertex Pharmaceuticals said today that patients who previously failed on a common hepatitis C drug regimen responded when the company's telaprevir was added.  [Boston Globe, Jun 9, 08]

Vertex Pharma  up 13%  [Jun 5, 08]

Vertex Pharmaceuticals reports it has sold its rights to future royalties from sales of HIV drugs Lexiva and Agenerase to GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK) for $160 M cash. [Mass High Tech, Jun 3, 08]

 Vertex Pharmaceuticals, the developer of telaprevir for hepatitis C, said the experimental drug was able to kill the virus in 82% of patients in a study who weren't helped by standard treatments. [Boston Globe, Apr 26]

Vertex Pharmaceuticals reported a wider first-quarter loss and lower revenue today, but shares climbed as analysts said upcoming data on its Hepatitis C drug telaprevir could be "highly significant."  [Boston Globe, Apr 23]

Vertex Pharmaceuticals  up 28% [Mar 31, 08] after the company cited data from a midstage study showing hepatitis C patients responded to its experimental drug telaprevir. [AP]

Vertex Pharmaceuticals (Cambridge, MA; $1M SBIR) said that its oral drug candidate VX-770 improved lung function in cystic fibrosis patients during a midstage study. [AP, Mar 27]

Vertex Pharmaceuticals up 12% [Feb 13, 08]

Vertex Pharmaceuticals reported a wider fourth-quarter loss and said it is planning a public offering of about six million shares. [Wall Street Journal, Feb 13]

Vertex Pharmaceuticals (Cambridge, MA; $1M SBIR) down 11% [Jan 23, 08] will begin Phase 3 evaluation of telaprevir, its lead investigational hepatitis C protease inhibitor.  [Chris Reidy, Boston Globe, Jan 23]

Shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals (Cambridge MA; $1M SBIR in the early 90s) which traded at two-year lows in recent days, slid today after a Wachovia analyst downgraded the stock, saying new tests may delay the launch of a hepatitis C drug candidate called telaprevir. [Boston Globe, Jan 3, 08]

If you want to know why drug research remains a slow and frustrating business even in this golden age of molecular biology, look at the troubles Vertex Pharmaceuticals has gone through to devise a new drug to combat hepatitis C. ... Vertex, an 18-year-old firm in Cambridge, Mass., has always been on the cusp of having a big-selling drug, yet has never quite scored with one. A lot of hopes are riding on telaprevir. Midstage trial data revealed this month showed that telaprevir, when combined with existing drugs, cleared the virus in 61% of patients in the U.S. and 65% of patients in Europe; it did this in 24 weeks, versus 48 weeks needed for existing therapies. The drug is clearly effective, but there were a lot of buts the day the data came out. [Robert Langreth, Forbes, Nov 29]

Vertex Pharmaceuticals lost 16%  in the wake of positive clinical study results for several hepatitis C drug candidates at a scientific meeting of liver specialists held in Boston late last week. [Market Watch.com, Nov 5, 07]

Vertex Pharmaceuticals down 13% as analysts predicted the company's hepatitis C drug candidate will face competition, based on surprisingly positive data from a rival Schering-Plough drug. [AP, Oc t 18, 07]

Vertex Pharmaceuticals up 11% on news of good new data for telaprevir [Jul 25, 07]

Vertex Pharmaceuticals shot up 17% on news that its experimental hepatitis C treatment worked. It had two Phase 2 SBIRs in the early 1990s. The leap got it back to 40% of its high of five years ago.

VeruTEK Technologies (Bloomfield, CT)

 VeruTEK Technologies (Bloomfield, CT; no SBIR) sold $2M of stock and warrants.  a forward-looking, high-technology, science-driven company, developing innovative, breakthrough, and practical solutions for the tens of thousands of contaminated sites, the result of a legacy of 200 years of industrialization. [company website]

ViaCell

PerkinElmer Inc. has begun a previously announced tender offer to acquire all outstanding shares of common stock of ViaCell (one SBIR).

PerkinElmer will buy ViaCell (Cambridge MA; one Phase 1 SBIR) for $300 M to bolster its genetics-screening business for pregnant women and newborn children. [Todd Wallack, Boston Globe, Oct 2, 07]  Is being bought by a larger company good or bad? If you are a life-style company, you think it's bad. But once there is evidence that private capital is ready to step into a technology, the government should stop funding it. Life style OK, but no more SBIR.

ViaCell up 11% after it and Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland reported results today that children with Sickle Cell Disease and Thalassemia can be cured with umbilical cord blood from a compatible sibling. [Business Wire, Sep 20]

ViaCell up 12% [Nov 3, 06] despite losing more money in the ever exciting stem cell business.  One Phase 1 SBIR.

ViaSat

ViaSat down 17% [Jan 8, 08]

ViaSat up 11% [Nov 2, 07] on good profits.

Forbes's annual list of the best 200 small companies had several SBIR awardees: Ceradyne #12, Flir Systems 37, II-IV 58, ATMI 69, ViaSat 90, Surmodics 105, Micrel 149, OPNET Tech 167.

ViaSat acquired Quincy's Intelligent Compression Technologies [no SBIR] in a deal that could be worth up to $54M. [Mass High Tech, Feb 20, 07]

ViaSat got a $12M order from Taiwan for information distribution system terminals. [Feb 07]

ViaSat is expected to announce a contract to supply equipment slated to go on Gulfstream jets ... onboard terminals and ground stations for an Internet-in-flight service ... Though ViaSat's latest contract is small and is expected to produce only about $12 million in revenue for the company, it highlights continuing interest in providing Internet links -- and increasingly cellular telephone connections -- to airplanes during flight. [Andy Pasztor,Wall Street Journal, Oct 30, 06]Reuters Investor Update maintains a positive view of ViaSat as both a growth and a value stock. .  By other metrics, though, VSAT appears to be a bargain. Its P/Sales ratio is 1.52, well below the Industry's 5.05. Further, its P/Cash Flow is 14.06, a considerable discount to the 21.00 mean of its peers. [Apr 05]

Smart Money magazine (a Dow Jones product) tagged ViaSat as one of ten stars of rising sales growth, with 42% rise last year and 16% annualized three year. The 16-42 combination means almost all the gain was packed into last year. 

ViaSat will sell satellite modems and other equipment for a sweeping project to expand Internet access in Mexico. e-Mexico is a digital divide program that sees opening 3,200 digital community centers is a government project subject to the usual political maneuvering. ViaSat's VP claimed that  every site will be a school and every school will have a computer lab. Presidente Fox somehow sees that 4% of Mexicans using Internet will translate to 90%. Which would community rather have - a sewer of an Internet connection? Fox also expects private enterprise to pay for 90% of the project. [story from Mike Freeman, San Diego Union Tribune, Dec 24, 02]

Spooks Buy ViaSat Product (Oct 11,02) ViaSat got a $10M contract from NSA (No Such Agency) to develop a Type-1 High Assurance Internet Protocol Interoperability Specification (HAIPIS) compliant Internet Protocol (IP) In- line Network Encryptor (INE).. Could that title be an encrypted message? Which would enable NSA to talk up to the TOP SECRET at least 1 Gigabit per second over commercial IP Wide Area Networks. What's innovative is NSA's public announcements of such work.

Spreek U Nederlands? ViaSat won a $1M contract for Multifunctional Information Distribution System terminals from the Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF) which is also ready to spend millions more for the remaining terminals needed to integrate MIDS into its F-16 equipped Air Force. Watch out, though, as the Dutch may try to sell something in return as one of world history's great traders which once had the world's fastest sailing ships. Despite such good news, the stock is trading at 12% of its irationally exhuberant 2000 high and at a PE ratio of 66.

ViaSat is being awarded a $29.6M delivery order under previously awarded indefinite-delivery and indefinite-quantity contract to exercise an option for fiscal year 2002 Multifunctional Information Distribution System-Low Volume Terminals. The MIDS-LVT provides secure, high capacity, jam resistant, digital data and voice communications capability for U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force and U.S. Army platforms. Work will be performed in Carlsbad, Calif. (54%); Melbourne, Fla. (34%); and Cincinnati, Ohio (12%), and is expected to be completed by June 2004. Contract funds in the amount of $4.53 million will expire at the end of the current fiscal year.

ViaSat Making Money(Dec 28)ViaSat got some favorable press from Bloomberg Personal Finance citing no debt and a string of profits since the 1996 IPO. The company says it expects its broadband business portion to expand from the present 20% to 60%. In its latest earnings report ViaSat claimed quarterly sales up 25% to a record $50M and a pro forma profits up 7%. It also said that it made Forbes' list of 200 Best Small Companies for the fifth straight year. ViaSat has had over $20M of military SBIR a healthy portion of which came after the IPO and most of which sounds like late stage engineering of existing technology into deployable hardware.

ViaSat reported quarterly record sales of $49M, up 25%. compared to $39.7 million for the comparable quarter last year, a 24.7% Profits? Well that depends on how many accountants and lawyers get to define them. Pro forma net income, which excludes the effects of acquisition charges (including amortization of intangibles and a charge for in-process research and development), was $3.2M, ... a 7.1% increase

ViaSat said sales were up 150% and profit up 80% if the goodwill charge for the "overpayment" of an acquisition isn't counted.

ViaSat announced record profits for the quarter, up 10% to $3.8M on doubled sales of $17M. That's before the so-called one-time charges of goodwill amortization and acquiring Scientific Atlanta's satellite networks business. Prospects for future business rose as the backlong jumped to $165M from $40M a year ago. The market didn't find the results newly exhilirating and beat the price down 20% in the past month.

ViaSat Record Profits(May 22)ViaSat showed record sales and earnings for its quarter and year. Fourth quarter. Sales up 30% and income up 22% for the quarter and both up 6% for the year. ViaSat also says its had a lot of good happenings last year. 1) bought the Satellite Networks Business of Scientific-Atlanta; 2) earned qualification from the Navy as one of three suppliers on the Certified MIDS Manufacturers Register (CMMR) and first production award for $23.4 million for Multifunctional Information Distribution System (MIDS) terminals with a total contract value of about $30M; 3) awarded an initial $13M part of five-year ordering agreement from the Raytheon Company to supply second-generation, enhanced UHF Satellite Communications (Satcom) Demand Assigned Multiple Access (DAMA) modem modules for Raytheon multiband terminals. It's alphabet soup but it's business. The stock is about quadruple its valus of a year ago and down 60% from its high. It got a start from a $1.2M SBIR from the Navy in 1988 for a PROOF-OF-CONCEPT TEST-BED MODEL OF A COMPACT RF ENVIRONMENT SIMULATOR, and another $1.9M in 1990 and a toal of 21 Phase 2s as it grew from 5 employees in 1986 to 360 today as a public company. The Navy can take some credit even though the Navy was probably just buying capability it wanted. Investmenbt in private sector commercialization is not what the Navy does for its SBIR living. Most of the Phase 2 abstracts sound like modest product improvements with which the conservative military services can feel comfortable.

ViaSat (Carlsbad, CA) rose 13% on news that it had filed to sell 2.5M shares; ViaSat is tenfold its value a year ago.The military has put nearly $20M into ViaSai in a decade for what reads like good sound useful engineering improvements in ViaSta's line of advanced digital satellite telecom and other networking and signal processing equipment. Profits have been nicely rising since 1993 to $7M in 1998. And withy onoy 370 employees it could still tap the military market with SBIR as the convenient vehicle if the military doesn't mind mostly procurement with R&D money. (Mar00)

ViaSat Order(Aug 10) $3.6 million order for ViaSat. The Navy's SPAWAR has placed an order with Carlsbad-based ViaSat Inc. for $3.6M worth of equipment, including the first sale of ViaSat's new UHF DAMA satellite communications mod