Colorado Bioscience Association Recognizes the Best of Colorado's Bioscience Industry
The Colorado BioScience Association (CBSA) has released the winners of its 2009 Awards Program. The announcement is made by John Collar, CBSA President and CEO, who says the CBSA awards program showcases and honors those individuals and companies making a significant difference to Colorado’s vibrant bioscience industry this year. Recipients of the CBSA’s 2009 awards include:
Partner of the Year – Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT) - The CBSA, as well as Colorado’s bioscience companies, rely on numerous, highly-respected partners to be successful. Since the inception of the CBSA, the Colorado Office of Economic Development has been an outstanding partner and friend to the bioscience industry in the state. The OEDIT has been engaged with CBSA on a number of levels, from helping ensure that Colorado’s bioscience industry remains a top priority for the state to the creation of the Bioscience Discovery Evaluation Grant Program. The great success this state’s bioscience industry has seen over the years is due in great part to the dedication and hard work of everyone at the Office of Economic Development and International Trade.F
Company of the Year – Accera, Inc. - During the past 12 months Accera has made several notable achievements at the state and national level. In March the company achieved the goal that all start-up companies are striving for, they successfully launched Axona, a new prescription therapeutic product for Alzheimer’s disease (AD), nationally in the US. This is the first new evidence-based therapeutic for AD in 10 years, and the first to demonstrate a powerful pharmacogenomic-based efficacy. Accera built its own commercial development capability by utilizing many Colorado-based companies for marketing, sales, manufacturing, etc. and hired new commercial employees from the local biotech market thereby putting their dollars to work in order to further grow the Colorado biotech industry. Today, Accera is the only Colorado-based company with a therapeutic product on the market. Accera is the first and only private biotech company in the US to have researched, developed and launched a prescription CNS product, and to have done it in record time – 8 years from inception to launch.
Rising Star – miRagen Therapeutics - miRagen Therapeutics was founded in 2007 to improve patients’ lives by developing innovative microRNA based therapeutics for the treatment of cardiovascular and muscle disease. As of June 2009, miRagen has achieved several key milestones resulting in the approval of the second tranche of their 2008 Series A financing of $8 million. In addition, miRagen secured a $4 million extension of the Series A, bringing the total funding of the Series A financing to $12 million. The company also engaged three new investors, Amgen Ventures, Broadview Ventures and The Peierls Foundation, who join founding investors Atlas Venture and Boulder Ventures.
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