MICROTRANSPONDER INC., FROM
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS WINS
LES FOUNDATION 2008 BUSINESS PLAN COMPETITION
Team Wins $55,000 in Prizes for Plan to Develop Medical Devices that Repair the Nervous System
Press Release
CHICAGO, MAY 6—Graduate Students from the University of Texas at Dallas captured first place in the 2008 Licensing Executives Society Foundation Graduate Student Business Plan Competition for their plan to commercialize a new wireless medical device to eliminate chronic pain.
According to the team, millions of Americans suffer from chronic pain, but current pharmaceutical and device solutions present dangerous side effects, resulting in a patient market with a substantial unmet need. MicroTransponder, Inc. is working to commercialize a neurostimulation solution to address this large and growing market by developing a tiny, biocompatible device for injection near the peripheral nerves. The device will block the pain signals and be programmable via a wireless interface such as PDA or cell phone.
"Current neurostimulation devices are ill-suited for interacting with the peripheral nerves due to their size and propensity to migrate or fail. Our device is 100 times smaller, injectable, and controlled wirelessly. This versatility will enable neurostimulation treatment to be expanded to a portfolio of additional indications." said Will Rosellini, JD, MBA, president and CEO of MicroTransponder.
MicroTransponer's initial offering is to license a "Neurostimulation Pain Management System" which can be implanted to relieve the debilitating and chronic pain associated with cancer, diabetic neuropathy, lower back pain and other conditions. Additional indications that the team aims to commercialize in the future include Refractory Epilepsy, Stroke, Neurorehabilitation, and Tinnitus.
The LES Foundation's Competition stands alone as the only business plan competition that not only simulates an exciting real-world venture capital experience for students, but also provides them with a competitive advantage through valuable industry networking opportunities and mentoring from LES members.
"Past finalists have told us that while the cash and in-kind prizes they received were beneficial, the real "pot of gold" was the opportunity to attend the LES Meeting," said Arthur Rose, LES Foundation President. "It's our hope that students walk away from this experience with an understanding of the tremendous value and competitive advantage that can be gained through the development and licensing of intellectual property (IP)."
This is the first year the LES Competition has been global in scope. In honor of this, LES International (LESI) awarded a Global Prize to recognize the team whose plan best dealt with IP rights and their use in the global business environment. This award and a $5,000 cash prize were presented to Swinburne University of Technology (Australia) for EcoRegen, a biotechnology company designed to regenerate wastes into resources for a sustainable ecology throughout the world.
In addition to the University of Texas and Swinburne, five other teams of innovation-minded graduate students from across the globe competed in the Competition finals at the LES International Conference, including 3rd Rock Sunblock, Inc., from Duke University; SeriesTech from Lund University (Sweden); ESMo Technologies, Pts Ltd., from Nanyang Technological University (Singapore); NanoGreen, Inc., from the University of Hawaii; and, BioRegenix from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
"These students are the superstars of tomorrow's marketplace," said Linda Chao, Office of Technology Licensing at Stanford University and Chair of the 2008 Competition. "Our original plan was to bring five teams to the finals, but the enormously high caliber of the entries demanded that we bring seven. The field was highly competitive and all of the students did very well."
The business plans were assessed on a variety of factors including attractiveness of the venture, quality of the product or service offered, market opportunity and investment potential. The winning team received a $10,000 cash prize as well as $45,000 dollars worth of in kind services from Ocean Tomo and Knobbe, Martens, Olson & Bear, LLP. Each runner up team received $1,000.
To learn more about the winning team visit www.microtransponder.com. Information about the 2009 LES Foundation Graduate Student Business Plan Competition is available More information...