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[news 2007 - 2008]
Queen’s inventors and their innovations honoured by PARTEQ Innovations
Awards honour technology advancements, stakeholder contributions
Dec. 18, 2007
KINGSTON, ON -- Innovations in pharmaceuticals, polymeric materials, and passenger safety have earned six Queen’s University inventors special recognition awards from PARTEQ Innovations.
The inventors were recognized at a celebration marking the 20th anniversary of PARTEQ, the Queen’s University office responsible for helping researchers advance their discoveries towards the market.
“Most Prolific Inventor” awards were presented to Dr. Michael Adams (Life Sciences) and Dr. J. Scott Parent (Physical Sciences). The pair were honoured for having the greatest number of different inventions on which PARTEQ has filed patent applications – 16 and 8, respectively.
The “Technology with Longest Term Impact” award was given to Professor Henk Wevers and his colleagues Gerald Saunders, David Siu and Jack Colley (posthumous). The foursome was recognized for their development of a wheelchair securement system now being sold around the world by Q’Straint Systems Inc.
Mr. Robert Bender, an investor with a long and successful history of funding and developing university-generated technologies, was honoured for his overall contributions to PARTEQ’s success.
“There are many, many people who deserve praise for their contribution to our success,” says John Molloy, President and CEO of PARTEQ Innovations. “These awards give special recognition to outstanding contributors. We are very fortunate to be able to work with such a rich base of exceptional researchers at Queen’s, and our acknowledgement of their contribution is long overdue.”
Recipient details below.
Dr. Michael Adams is a Queen’s professor of pharmacology with a variety of inventions to his credit. Made over more than a dozen years with a number of different co-inventors, these technologies range from treatments for prostate cancer and restless leg syndrome to an anaesthetic-laden bone cement for relieving pain after joint replacement surgery, and a device for delivering drugs for erectile dysfunction.
With co-inventors Dr. Jeremy Heaton and Dr. Alvaro Morales of Kingston General Hospital, Dr. Adams discovered that a drug previously used for Parkinson’s disease is an effective treatment for impotence when delivered in a novel manner. This treatment was developed by TAP Pharmaceuticals and has been sold as the drug UPRIMA™ in over 80 countries worldwide.
Dr. Adams was also a co-founder of Vaxis Therapeutics Corp., a PARTEQ spinoff company. Vaxis specialized in conditions affecting the peripheral nervous system such as restless leg syndrome, erectile dysfunction and wound healing. Vaxis was acquired in 2001 by Cellegy Pharmaceuticals of California.
Dr. Adams was also inventor, with colleagues Dr. Charles Graham of Queen’s and Dr. Heaton, of a treatment for prostate cancer using low doses of nitric oxide, a drug currently approved for the treatment of angina. This technology is being developed by Nometics Inc., another PARTEQ spinoff. The company expects to be in Phase II/III clinical trials for this treatment in 2008.
Dr. Scott Parent is a Queen’s associate professor of chemical engineering, specializing in polymers. Over the last decade Dr. Parent has created a variety of new materials through innovative polymer modification processes. These materials fall into classes of polymers known as thermoplastics (e.g. the materials used to prepare the housing for your iPod®) and thermosets (e.g. the materials used in high performance racing tires).
Dr. Parent has also developed new methods to chemically modify plastics such as polyethylene and polypropylene. Traditionally these materials are prepared through energy-intensive processes requiring hundreds of million dollars in infrastructure. Dr. Parent has developed advanced chemical methods for the preparation of specialized plastics through simple, environmentally friendly processes.
In collaboration with Dr. Ralph A. Whitney (Queen’s Chemistry), Dr. Parent has created several new classes of synthetic elastomers, or rubber-like materials, which are showing promise in a wide variety of consumer applications.
The materials and processes developed by Dr. Parent have attracted the attention of a number of “top 50” global chemical and materials companies. Working with PARTEQ, these companies have embarked on application development activities with intended end-uses in packaging, electronics, energy and transportation.
Mr. Henk Wevers was a founding member of Queen’s Clinical Mechanics Group (CMG), now the Human Mobility Research Centre, an internationally renowned centre for biomechanical research. In the early 1980s, Jack Colley, a member of CMG research team and an advocate for the physically disabled, challenged the group to find a solution to a significant transportation safety issue: how to keep wheelchairs and their passengers safe while in transit? Rising to the challenge, Mr. Wevers and Mr. Colley, joined by Gerald Saunders and David Siu, developed a retractable, adjustable four-point securement system for wheelchairs and their passengers.
In 1984 the system was licensed to Girardin Inc. (now Q’Straint) of Cambridge, Ontario, a manufacturer of buses and vans for the physically disabled. As reports to Q’Straint over the years have shown, the patented restraint system refinements created by Prof. Wevers and his research team have enabled many wheelchair passengers to survive devastating vehicle crashes unharmed.
Q’Straint has grown to become the largest wheelchair securement company in the world, with additional offices in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Whitstable, Kent, U.K., and Rocklea, Australia. The company currently has 85 employees. Today, transport companies in North and South America, Europe, Great Britain, Australia, Japan and China all depend on Q’Straint technology for keeping their wheelchair passengers safe.
Mr. Robert Bender began his partnership with PARTEQ in the 1980s, following early successes in starting and growing companies in life sciences and health care. A PhD candidate in membrane biophysics, he founded his first company, Bio Logicals Inc. in the early 1970s and later led it through a $70 million public offering. He continued to seek out promising university-generated technologies while working as a venture capitalist, including founding two companies based on Queen’s University research before assisting, in 1993, with the startup and management of Queen’s spinoff company Neurochem, Inc., now of Montreal.
Mr. Bender has reviewed and contributed advice on many projects in a variety of disciplines. He is currently involved in the management and/or development of a number of Queen’s startup companies, including:
• AtheroChem Inc., focused on developing novel drugs for the treatment of atherosclerosis;
• CAPT Corp., focused on treatments for chronic and acute pain;
• Nometics Inc., focused on the use of low-dose nitric oxide for the treatment of prostate cancer; and
• sGC Pharma Inc., focused on the use of novel nitrate-based compounds for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.
Mr. Bender’s experience in institutional and private venture capital includes both Adler & Co. (New York City) and Ventures West (Vancouver). He has worked with institutional investors and has experience in investment banking and complex financial transactions in multiple jurisdictions. He has numerous technical publications and biomedical patents.
Contact:
John Molloy,
President & CEO
P: 613. 533. 6000 x 77478
E: jmolloy@parteqinnovations.com |
