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About the Biotech Showcase
The first day of IBSC features the Biotech Showcase - a pitch competition for emerging biotech companies across the various industries including Ag Tech, Human Health, Med Device, Animal Health and Industrial/Environmental Bio Materials. The following eight companies have selected to present on March 2nd and compete for a $10,000 prize!
Biotech Showcase Sponsored By
Biotech Showcase Format
Full pitches from the Biotech Showcase companies will be pre-recorded and made available for viewing approximately one month prior to the event. On the day of the competition, they will present a 2-minute elevator pitch to attendees and a designated judge. Attendees will have a chance to vote on their favorite, which will be announced along with the judge's selection prior to the conclusion of day one!
Biotech Showcase Judges
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Tom Swegle
MedCara, LLC |
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Penny (Carpenter) Sattgast, MS
PCS Biotech Services, LLC |
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Joe Leo
BrownWinick Law |
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Leslie J Williams
CEO, Advisor and Board Director |
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Gary Folkert
Cargill |
2021 Biotech Showcase Companies
3D Health Solutions, Inc - Ames, IA
www.3dhealth.solutions
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3D Health Solutions, Inc. (3DHS), is a spinoff start-up company from Iowa State University (ISU) that seeks to improve current preclinical screening methods of therapeutic drugs for Pharmaceutical Research and Development. 3DHS was incubated out of the ISU Startup Factory and is backed-up by the National Science Foundation, the Iowa Economic Development Authority, the Regents Innovation Fund and the John Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship (2020 award winner). Our value proposition relies on the improved prediction performances for drug oral absorption. As of today, >90% of drugs that were successful in preclinical testing later fail in clinical trials. The company founders are prominent scientists in their field of research and have concluded a 5-year research cooperation agreement with the U.S FDA for the development of this technology.
By developing a better screening tool for preclinical drug testing, 3DHS expects to significantly impact the time and cost expenditures in drug research and development - ultimately benefiting patients and systematic healthcare costs. Practically, 1 drug candidate per year and per company gets terminated in clinical development because of intestinal absorption issues. This represents a net loss of ~ $400M per year and per drug. For the largest pharmaceutical companies with annual revenue greater than $10B, this would result in total savings of $12B per year. |
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CartilaGen, Inc. - Iowa City, IA
www.cartilagen.com
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CartilaGen is a company founded around a medical technology developed in the Department of Orthopedics at the University of Iowa. CartilaGen’s product, acquired through execution of a worldwide exclusive license agreement with The University of Iowa Research Foundation, comprises an injectable small-molecule drug suspended in a hydrogel vehicle and has been proven effective in preventing the onset of post-traumatic osteoarthritis (PTOA). This is an entirely novel feat yet to be demonstrated by any product. The current therapeutic landscape utilized by physicians for PTOA consists solely of products to manage the symptoms this disease, nothing with preventative or curative capabilities. Therefore, CartilaGen is a first mover fulfilling a clear unmet medical need. |
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Distynct - Ames, IA
getdistynct.com
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Distynct provides swine producers with a fully automated herd monitoring solution, via a software platform that enables precision livestock farming. Distynct brings network connectivity to the barn and utilizes a series of connected sensors, artificial intelligence, computer vision, and a customizable real-time dashboard to monitor critical barn and environmental data in real time.
The Distynct platform meets swine producers where they are in their journey of technology adoption. Users can select a range of technology deployment available from Distynct. This could include basic sensors that simply monitor conditions all the way to artificial intelligence to identify and count pigs. Now, data is collected accurately and reliably and without the reliance on humans.
Distynct delivers a scalable software solution that allows swine producers to finally deploy precision technology at their pace, and continually test and adopt new IoT devices as the technology advances. |
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FBB Biomed - Coralville, IA
FBBbio.com
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One Life, One Test. It is with this vision that FBB Biomed was founded in 2019: to build a test of value over a lifetime because it measures disease severity to predict patient outcomes. We achieve this by measuring molecular components of the innate immune system in saliva and blood – a highly sensitive molecular thermometer. We initially focused on multiple sclerosis, then pivoted to infectious diseases such as dengue fever and COVID-19, but later realized through our research that our discovery is applicable to all immune system-related diseases. Our target market is disease severity diagnostics in the US and doctors will be our customers, as they order tests.
We are proud award winners of the 15th Annual John Pappajohn Iowa Entrepreneurial Venture Competition, having been vetted by the Iowa State University Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship and the University of Iowa John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center. |
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Hilltop BioSciences, Inc. - Mansfield, MA
www.HilltopBio.com
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Hilltop Bio helps our injured animals get back to what they do best and quickly! With novel, off the shelf, easy to use therapies, our veterinary partners can treat a variety of conditions timely, at a reduced cost and with minimal risk.
Hilltop Bio’s products contain the whole orchestra of components to assist the body in reducing and healing injuries and inflammatory diseases such as airway diseases like Asthma. Veterinarians are able to easily access an effective, consistent dose solution for these diseases and soft tissue injuries.
Growing clinical research demonstrates tremendously successful restoration of function in the treated animals with this product. These products are naturally anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial resulting in accelerated healing of injuries with minimal risk of infection, enabling the animal to return to previous levels of work or play within a significantly shorter timeframe. |
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LEAH Labs - Rochester, MN
www.leahlabs.com
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LEAH Labs is a Y Combinator-, angel-, and grant-backed biotechnology company building cell therapies to solve pressing issues in companion animal health. We are first building chimeric antigen receptor T cell therapy (CAR-T cell therapy), the FDA approved treatment curing non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in humans in the clinic today. At least 250,000 dogs die of B cell lymphoma (the clinical analog of human non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma) every year, and we’re using gene editing to make CAR-T cells affordable to the veterinary market. We’re disrupting the current chemotherapeutic standard of care for B cell lymphoma which costs $10,000, takes 12-16 vet visits, and only buys 10-12 months of life, with a therapy that has proven curative in humans. Importantly, our therapy falls under USDA jurisdiction meaning we can get to market in 3 years (3-5x faster than FDA) for only $5M (>200x cheaper than FDA) in development and regulatory costs. |
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Mazen Animal Health, Inc - St. Joseph, MO
www.mazenanimalhealth.com
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Mazen Animal Health is disrupting animal disease prevention by creating “edible” vaccines that can be dosed with feed. Imagine a world where zoonotic diseases are stopped at the source. Imagine a world where a vaccine can be shipped to farms at room temperature in less than 24 hours and fed to animals to control an outbreak and protect our food supply. Mazen is developing orally-delivered animal vaccines that will disrupt animal disease prevention and offer customers cost effective, safe to deliver, efficacious, room temperature stable vaccines to increase productivity and ensure a continuous food supply. With ongoing collaborations with animal health companies and a customer already engaged for trial and utilization, we are poised to move Mazen forward to the next series of value-enhancing milestones |
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Otrafy - St. Paul, MN
www.otrafy.com
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Otrafy helps companies manage the collection, storage, reviewing, and transfer of certification data across the food chain. Our web-based software helps manufacturers meet compliance and regulatory requirements faster by minimizing & automating mundane, low value-added activities.
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Past Biotech Showcase Winners
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2020 Winner
2019 Winner
2018 Winner
2017 Winner
2016 Winner
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