PHOENIX—The Flinn Foundation has surpassed $1 million in funding support to benefit Arizona bioscience startup companies with the selection of six firms to participate in the foundation’s 2019 Bioscience Entrepreneurship Program.
The Flinn Foundation has selected 34 Arizona bioscience firms since 2014 to participate in the program, which was created to foster entrepreneurship and further the goals of Arizona’s Bioscience Roadmap, the state’s long-term strategic plan through 2025 to advance the bioscience sector.
In addition to $30,000 in funding administered through a nonprofit partner, the entrepreneurship program provides each competitively selected firm a bundle of benefits, including a professionally developed, yearlong plan specific to the needs of the company, helping them to navigate the challenges facing startups and empowering them to become investor-ready.
The 2019 program winners—including three from the Phoenix area and three from Tucson—are:
AdviNow Medical
Scottsdale
AdviNow Medical integrates artificial intelligence and augmented reality into a medical encounter with a patient, revolutionizing patient-provider interaction. The clinical visit is completely automated as the AI interacts with patients to collect symptoms, take vitals, and deliver a complete patient workup with a breakdown of predicted illnesses and treatment options. The technology is currently in use at select Safeway stores.
CATS Tonometer
Tucson
CATS Tonometer has developed the FDA-approved Correcting Applanation Tonometer Surface prism, which studies show significantly improves intraocular-eye-pressure measurement data—a key metric in the diagnosis and treatment of glaucoma and other conditions. The CATS solution is implemented by simply changing out the existing prism and does not require any changes in clinician measurement technique.
Desert Valley Tech
Mesa
Desert Valley Tech is the creator of the HemaPorter, a cold-chain custody and storage solution for blood products, organs, pharmaceuticals and vaccines that provides medical personnel greater access to critical tools in war zones, remote locations, and disaster areas. The rechargeable, dockable container provides real-time monitoring and can be transported by drones.
Emagine Solutions Technology
Tucson
Emagine Solutions Technology is a mobile health-care company and developer of VistaScan, a software platform that transforms a mobile phone or tablet into a powerful, high-quality ultrasound device. The company’s mission is to provide affordable, quality ultrasound to clinicians in low-resource settings to improve health outcomes around the world.
NANOPEC
Tucson
NANOPEC offers scalable solutions to businesses by helping to make pharmaceuticals safer. The company manufactures MetaPurex nano-filtration solutions for high-precision purification of pharmaceuticals, avoiding both harm to patients and product recalls. MetaPurex pores are nano-size, highly ordered, free of defects, and able to filter out all bacteria, including mycoplasma and most common viruses.
Ordinatrix
Phoenix
Ordinatrix’s mission is to be the leader in translational proteomics and offer researchers a disruptive tool for the analysis of protein function. The company’s ActiveArrays can place a human protein microarray on a small slide for the research and development of new drugs, biomarkers, and other precision-medicine tools.
The $30,000 grant for each firm will be awarded to and administered by the nonprofit Arizona Bioindustry Association, a trade association that promotes the growth of Arizona bioscience companies. The Flinn Foundation has now allocated $1,000,005 in grants to nonprofits since the program began.
Opportunities are also offered to participating firms to engage with the state’s bioscience, academic, and policy leaders, including a year as a member of Arizona’s Bioscience Roadmap Steering Committee. The committee is comprised of about 100 leaders from the public and private sectors that gathers quarterly to discuss major research, business, and policy developments that impact the biosciences in Arizona and explore opportunities to advance the sector. The companies will also receive a complimentary membership to AZBio for one year.
The selected firms must be engaged in the commercialization of bioscience research and biotechnology and/or the sale of products in the areas of medical devices and equipment; drugs, pharmaceuticals and diagnostics; agricultural feedstock and chemicals; research, testing and medical labs; or bioscience-related distribution—the industry categories recognized together as the biosciences in Arizona’s Bioscience Roadmap.
The application for the 2020 Flinn Foundation Bioscience Entrepreneurship Program will be available later this year at www.flinn.org/entrepreneur.
The Flinn Foundation is a privately endowed, philanthropic grantmaking organization established in 1965 by Dr. Robert S. and Irene P. Flinn to improve the quality of life in Arizona to benefit future generations. In addition to advancing the biosciences, the foundation supports the Flinn Scholars Program, a merit-based college scholarship program; arts and culture; and the Arizona Center for Civic Leadership and its Flinn-Brown Academy.