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Johnson & Johnson (J&J) was founded in 1886 and is based in New Brunswick, NJ, with an Innovation Center in Cambridge, MA. The firm invests in a variety of fields within the life science sector, including medical devices. J&J’s medical device investments are highly varied in both size and structure; the structure may involve milestone payments, or may be an equity investment. J&J is interested in early stage medical device companies located globally.

Horizon Technology Finance is a venture lending, investment and financial services management company that was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Farmington, Ct with additional offices in Walnut Creek, CA and Reston, VA. The firm controls approximately $200 million in assets under management and look to provide senior or subordinate loans to companies in the range of $2 to $20 million dollars, and often syndicates much larger deals. The firm prefers to lead or co-lead investments that they are involved in and looks to be involved in 15 deals in the next 6-9 months. The firm provides capital to companies located throughout the United States and Canada.

JBI is a Midwest-based biotechnology company driven to develop a new class of therapies to treat patients with Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases. 

JBI’s unique approach is able to lower the production of Amyloid Beta (Aβ), phosphorylated Tau (pTau) and toxic intracellular Aβ aggregates.  Our passion is to develop a therapy to restore the patient’s lifespan and improve patient quality of life.

JBI is focused on further developing its lead compound, JBI-009, based on the strength of compelling preclinical safety and efficacy results to date.

JBI’s approach represents a new wave in thinking about the treatment of AD.  Currently available drugs treat disease symptoms, rather than its suspected cause, and do so with limited success.  Most drugs in late-stage clinical development are attempting to address a likely cause of the disease, the accumulation of Aβ, by potently inhibiting the enzyme responsible for Aβ production.  As this enzyme has other important biological functions, this approach has seen early failures because of unacceptable side effects.  JBI's approach is unique in that it modulates the production of this enzyme rather than inhibits its activity.  JBI’s approach is expected to restore enzyme activity and Aβ production to normal levels with a favorable safety advantage.

JBI’s technology is also unique in that it targets cellular machinery within the Endoplasmic Reticulum (ER).  Most drug developers have focused on modifying activity that occurs either on the cell membrane or within the cell nucleus or cytosol.  JBI is one of the first, if not the first, to successfully target activity within the ER.  The discoveries employed by JBI have produced a lead compound that affects the enzyme responsible for controlling the rate-limiting step in Aβ production, penetrates the blood brain barrier, and shows no toxicity in IND feasibility safety studies.  In addition, work has begun on next generation compounds.  This ER-focused approach provides platform potential for future therapies to treat additional significant unmet medical needs.

Debra Miller co-founded CureDuchenne in 2003 with her husband, Paul, after their only son was diagnosed with Duchenne. Miller relies on her extensive background in sales and marketing to lead CureDuchenne. 

Her role includes overseeing all operations, research and financial resources as well as serving as the primary liaison to the Board of Directors. She is the decision maker, leader and manager in carrying out the mission of the organization. She also works closely with the Scientific Board of Advisors in designing and implementing the medical research strategic plan.

Miller is a member of the Department of Defense Duchenne Research review board and also a member of the TREAT-NMD international review board, TACT.  Miller has led CureDuchenne’s successful venture philanthropy programs and is the architect of CureDuchenne Ventures LLC, a new, for profit entity created to attract significant research funding to Duchenne research.

Prior to CureDuchenne, Miller had a career in publishing with positions at IDG Communications, Cahners Publishing, Ziff-Davis Publishing and Scholastic Publishing. She also worked in management at PC Magazine and was an independent stock trader.

Miller earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies from the University of California – Los Angeles. 

Z-Cube invests strategically in technologies that benefit Zambon’s pharmaceuticals and API chemical businesses. 

Within the therapeutics sector, Z-Cube is interested in new technological platforms that enable Zambon’s therapeutic innovation (Z-Cube does not make developmental-stage investments in new chemical entities, and as Zambon only markets small molecule therapeutics, technologies related to biologics are not of interest). This includes drug delivery innovations, and other enabling technologies for therapeutics that do not have to undergo the full therapeutic approval process in order to reach the marketplace. 

Z-Cube is also interested in diagnostics, particularly point of care diagnostics, companion diagnostics and other diagnostics that are used alongside a therapeutic intervention, and diagnostics that can be used in preventative care or to lower overall healthcare costs. Zambon is also interested in diagnostic technologies used to monitor a chronic condition. 

Zambon’s therapeutic focus areas are respiratory diseases and pain (particularly chronic pain), and the firm is also interested in CNS disorders and women’s health (encompassing osteoporosis and rheumatoid arthritis in addition to ob/gyn). However in the diagnostics sector, Zambon is interested in all indications. 

Zambon is additionally interested in digital technologies that enhance communication in the healthcare space, particularly between doctor and patient or between general practitioners and specialists. This includes EMR and telehealth technologies, and devices that transmit information wirelessly. 

Zambon is also interested in innovations in high-tech chemistry, including purification of APIs, advanced crystallography, and novel custom synthesis.

BCAL Diagnostics is a Sydney, Australia based blood diagnostics company with research facilities based in Kentucky, USA.

The BCAL lipid biomarker test is a universal blood test for the effective screening and monitoring of breast cancer.  The BCAL test is being developed to be safe, cost effective, accurate and available to all women regardless of age, race and geographic location.

BCAL Diagnostics is near completion of a 200-patient study. Initial results indicate the BCAL test has a greater than 90% sensitivity and specificity in the diagnosis of invasive ductal carcinoma which is 85% of all breast cancers. 

This will lead to a range of BCAL breast cancer blood tests that can be used across the full breast cancer disease management continuum. from pre-disposition to screening to long term monitoring.

BCAL Diagnostics is now seeking Series B capital of $5-$10M USD to support its global commercialisation activities.

Comprising 10 investment professionals, Omnes Capital’s venture capital team acquires minority stakes in young companies with high growth potential. Its main areas of interest are financing innovative business ventures in the information technology and life sciences sectors (drug development, diagnostics, medical devices, bioproduction).

For 12 years, Omnes Capital has managed FCPI mutual funds (French regulated mutual funds investing in innovative companies).

GaitTronics has developed a robotic patient handling system called SoloWalk. SoloWalk provides effortless mobility for frail patients which would otherwise require two or more caregivers to assist them and put the patients at risk of falling. With SoloWalk's intelligent patient driven mobile system, a single caregiver can mobilize a patient. Additionally, an automatic fall protection system supports the patient automatically if a balance loss is detected, significantly reducing the risk of injury for patients and staff.

Currently, hospitals are only providing adequate mobility for 30% of their patients. With SoloWallk, these institutions can expect to significantly increase this proportion and reduce complications associated with immobility, including: functional decline, bed sores, increased delirium and increased length-of-stay. With the potential of reducing length-of-stay by two days, there is a significant ROI for using SoloWalk in an acute care setting.

Watch a demo of SoloWalk at http://youtu.be/tIcfEsnQ4uY .