Nanofibers in medicine: we would like THEIR problems…
Dr. Jayesh Doshi, founder of the successful small firm eSpin Technologies Inc., which produces nanofibers, joined forces with Raymond DeBarge, a doctor from a local university, to create a new firm, Notus Laboratories Inc. The goal of the companions is to develop medical products based on nanofibers and bring them to market. Interestingly, the name of the new company – Notus – means the name of the Greek god of the southern winds.
Dr. Doshi, a former employee of the well–known DuPont company, created eSpin in 1998, and she initially worked in one of the technoparks of Chattanooga, the capital of Tennessee - Hamilton County Business Development Center. In 2004, he moved his business to another technopark – Enterprise South industrial park and started industrial production of nanofibers there.
The company Notus was founded by partners in July 2006 with a start-up capital of 200 thousand dollars and currently works in the Business Development Center and has only three employees.
In order to expand the business and prepare for the "take–off" of the business, the owners over the past year have begun to work closely with the staff of the faculties of biology and chemistry of the local university - University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. The company is now going through, in the words of investors, the stage of "team building".
They hire professionals who have experience working with medical devices and have already started working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The company's immediate plans include obtaining $3 million in venture capital in order to recruit employees and start manufacturing its products.
"We have already developed a number of products," says Dr. Doshi, "so now we will spend most of our efforts on popularizing new products in medical circles."
Among these HB-based products, he names materials that can be used to drain wounds during surgical operations, similar to how it is done now with gauze or a sponge. But new materials based on NV have significant advantages: they are thinner, lighter and can absorb more liquid. The owners of the new company set themselves a period of 1.5 years to "promote" these new products.
Another type of products that Notus specialists are currently working on are nanofiber-based materials that can be used for percutaneous drug delivery. But the FDA approval process for this type of product may be delayed, and therefore they may appear on the market no earlier than in 3-5 years," says Dr. DeBarge, an ophthalmologist and associate professor at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine.
Local experts highly estimate the probability of success of the new company, assuming that its activities will have a positive impact on the economy of the city and state and attract investors from other cities and regions of the country.
(Med spinoff eyes nanofibers, Chattanooga times free press, January 05, 2008)
Almost an ordinary (for the USA) story. A man founded a company, "spinning" nanofibers. Took… Economic success has come. And he wanted to find some practical application for these nanofibers. I looked around, talked to some of the specialists and found a niche for myself – I will, they say, use these materials in medicine. Then it's quite simple: I gathered a team, scored a place in one of the technoparks, got a loan from one of the venture companies, coordinated the parameters of my future products with the local department of Zdravnadzor (FDA) – and that's it!.. Work, "promote" the business, establish advertising, contacts with future consumers… Make a profit, expand your business, etc., etc. How everything is, in principle, simple, even everyday!... Oh, we would have THEIR problems!..
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