DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--VetDC (Fort Collins) won the 2012 Venture Showcase competition at the 2012 BioWest Conference & Expo yesterday at the Marriott City Center Denver, receiving the $7,500 cash prize. The announcement is made by April Giles, Colorado BioScience Association (CBSA) Executive Vice President who says this year’s Venture Showcase was made possible by sponsors Dorsey & Whitney LLP, EKS&H and The Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation. BioWest, the Rocky Mountain Region’s premier medical device and biotechnology conference, is organized by the CBSA and held every other year.
VetDC is an emergent veterinary biotechnology company that licenses innovative human biomedical technologies to address serious medical needs in companion animals. By aligning with CSU’s top-ranked veterinary school, VetDC has unique capabilities to develop animal therapies, resulting in speed to market, risk reduction, and capital preservation. VetDC has assembled a proven team with regulatory, CMC, and clinical expertise. VetDC’s lead candidate, VDC-1101, is an anti-cancer drug with extensive animal data. VDC-1101 is expected to launch in 2014 with $50M peak revenue potential. In 2011, VetDC secured funding from the Colorado Institute for Drug, Device and Diagnostic Development (CID4). VetDC President/CEO Steven Roy made the presentation at the Venture Showcase. For more information, visit: http://www.vet-dc.com.
“The Venture showcase announcement is the capstone to the BioWest Conference,” Giles explains. “It creates a huge buzz in the industry for the up-and-coming companies chosen to compete. We are very proud to announce VetDC as this year’s winner.”
The Venture Showcase format allowed each company’s lead executive to make a 15-minute presentation with slides explaining their technology and business plan to a panel of judges in front of a live audience. This year’s judging panel included the following bioscience experts and venture capitalists:
• Joe Adams, Partner, EKS&H
• Robert Chicoski, Partner, Saturn Partners
• Mike Handley, Senior Managing Partner & Executive Director, Level 5 Partners
• Ned Scheetz, Managing Director, Aphelion Capital
• Michael Weiner, Partner, Dorsey
The five 2012 Venture Showcase finalists included:
Flashback Technologies Inc. - Longmont, CO http://www.flashbacktechnologies.com
KromaTiD - Fort Collins, CO http://www.kromatid.com
Siva Therapeutics Inc. - Boulder, CO http://www.sivatherapeutics.com
SuviCa Inc. - Boulder, CO http://www.suvica.com
VetDC Inc. - Fort Collins, CO http://www.vet-dc.com
The one-day BioWest conference was attended by more than 400 industry leaders, government representatives, executives, researchers, investors and entrepreneurs. This year’s national speakers for BioWest included Ginger Graham of Harvard Business School and past president of Amylin Pharmaceuticals and Mike Huckman former CNBC biopharma and medical device industry reporter-turned-PR pro.
“We continue to work to serve Colorado’s 600 bioscience companies and look forward to presenting the conference in again 2014,” Giles concludes.
Sponsors for the 2012 BioWest Conference & Expo
Founders Session Sponsor, Colorado Science + Technology Park at Fitzsimons; Keynote Lunch Sponsor, Ernst & Young ; Venture Showcase Sponsors, Dorsey & Whitney LLP, EKS&H, Metro Denver EDC; Track Sponsors, NextGen, Clinipace, Lonza, Sheridan Ross PC, Emerson Consultants; Lanyard Sponsor, Cooley; Closing Reception Sponsor, Wells Fargo; Co-track Sponsors, Medical Center of the Rockies, National Jewish Health Advanced Diagnostic Laboratories, DaVita Clinical Research; Conference Bag, CPC Clinical Research; Break Sponsor, BIO; and, General Conference Sponsors, Amgen, Fisher Scientific, Inviragen, Johnson & Johnson, PhRMA and TerumoBCT.
About Colorado BioScience Association
The CBSA is a not-for-profit organization providing services and support for Colorado’s bioscience industry. With more than 350 members, CBSA actively works to promote the growth of the industry by advocating for a better business environment, growing the state’s biotech workforce, fighting for policies that support a strong bioscience industry in the state, and speaking with a single voice on behalf of the industry. For more information, visit http://www.cobioscience.com.
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Contacts
Colorado BioScience Association
Mae Desaire, Director of Marketing
720-382-5918
mdesaire@cobioscience.com
http://www.cobioscience.com
or
Absolutely Public Relations
Maggie Chamberlin Holben, APR
303-984-9801
maggie@absolutelypr.com
http://www.absolutelypr.com
