The Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California-Irvine brought 19 Israeli startup executives to Orange County to participate in its two-week U.S.-Israel Innovation Bridge Executive Leadership Program on medical devices last month.
“The business culture in the U.S. is different,” said Paul Merage, who started the program 14 years ago. He said it’s designed to help Israeli entrepreneurs understand the business culture differences and connect them to people and capital resources.
Merage is chairman of MIG Companies in Newport Beach, a company he co-founded with his sons. He formed Chef America with his brother, David, in the late 1970s, and sold the packaged food company, to Nestle in 2002 for $2.6 billion.
This year’s winner is SmartAir Health, which develops a device that measures symptoms and triggers to predict and prevent asthma attacks. Chief Executive Uriel Klar, who received the $10,000 first place prize award from the school, is in the process of raising $800,000. Proceeds will help bring the product to market.
Several large pharmaceutical companies are also investing in the development of smart asthma inhalers, including IBM Watson and Israeli generic drugmaker Teva Pharmaceuticals.
New Gas Application
Garden Grove-based Novoteris LLC will start a phase-two trial of Thiolanox, its nitric oxide gas inhaler designed to treat nontuberculous mycobacteria, a lung disease caused by exposure to bacterial germ mycobacteria. The Therapeutic Products Directorate of Health Canada cleared the single-center trial, which will recruit 10 subjects to the Vancouver clinical site.
The trial is separate from the company’s phase-two, 60-patient trial testing the gas’ efficacy to treat cystic fibrosis, a rare inherited disorder that damages the lungs and digestive system, in both the U.S. and Canada.
“The clearances by Health Canada will enable us to expand our work with this novel therapy to a wider range of people,” said Novoteris founder and President Alex Stenzler, who’s also president of Garden Grove-based 12th Man Technologies, from which Novoteris acquired its intellectual property and science.
Stenzler said nitric oxide is a molecule naturally produced by the body—serving as the innate defense system against microorganisms—and has been used together with a ventilator to treat respiratory failure in premature babies.
The device has a computerized trace-gas delivery system.
Novoteris was formed in 2013. Its drug-delivery technology and clinical trial data came from Nitric Solutions Inc. in Vancouver, Canada, which makes bedside nitric oxide gas analysis and delivery equipment.
Cannabinoid Maker Raise
Costa Mesa-based Nemus Bioscience Inc. raised $2 million through the sale of 2,000 shares of series F preferred stock. Each share is convertible into a share of common stock at a conversion price of 15 cents per share.
The biopharmaceutical company is focused on developing cannabinoid-based therapeutics. It’s pursuing a wide range of indications, including glaucoma, chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, dry-eye syndrome and macular degeneration, all of which are in preclinical or research stage.
Shares of the company’s stock are traded on the OTC market for 13 cents per share and a $4 million market cap.
Grant for Study
ImmunogenX, a subsidiary of Immunogenics LLC in Newport Beach that focuses on developing the diagnosis and treatment of autoimmune and gastrointestinal diseases, received a $1.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to conduct a two-year clinical study on using Latiglutenase, ImmunogenX’ clinical-stage drug candidate, to treat celiac disease—an autoimmune disorder that occurs in genetically predisposed people who can’t eat gluten.
Latiglutenase has had a successful phase-two trial, according to the company.
ImmunogenX is also developing a minimally invasive diagnostic device for celiac disease management.
Respiratory Buy
Early-stage device company MediPines Corp. acquired the Oxisimulator from the Mayo Clinic. The technology, which was invented by clinical practitioners at the department of anesthesiology and exclusively licensed to MediPines, is designed to reduce respiratory complications in post-surgical patients. Terms were undisclosed.
MediPines has two clinical-stage products: a noninvasive real-time monitor and an oxygen desaturation prevention device.
Bits & Pieces
San Rafael-based FutureSense LLC, a human resources management provider, partnered with Birmingham, Ala.-based DirectPath, which focuses on employee engagement, healthcare transparency and compliance, to provide bundled services aimed at increasing employee engagement and reducing benefits administration cost. FutureSense is a portfolio company of La Palma-based Innovation Institute, a for-profit LLC owned by six nonprofit hospitals, including Renton, Wash.-based Providence St. Joseph Health and Children’s Hospital of Orange County. It’s part of the organization’s enterprise development group, which owns a portfolio of profitable companies to support the institute’s incubator, the Innovation Lab.
