The University of Akron’s Fitzgerald Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies has awarded a first place prize of $3,000 in its annual business plan competition to Polymeric Drug Delivery Systems LLC, an Akron company formed last year. The trio who formed the company are Deenu Kanjickal, Pritam Das and Dave Young.
Polymeric’s signature product, the PolyRing, is a time-controlled drug delivery device that seeks to reduce or eliminate the need for further surgeries caused by intimal hyperplasia, a form of blood vessel blockage.
“Intimal hyperplasia has been identified as a primary cause in the failure of vascular prosthetic devices. For example, approximately 150,000 peripheral arterial bypass graft procedures are surgically implanted each year in the U.S. for dialysis access,” Mr. Kanjickal said.
“The bypass grafts fail within a year in 60% to 80% of the patients. The device developed by PDDS would prolong the life of these grafts,” Mr. Kanjickal said. Mr. Kanjickal said he and his team were very pleased to get the award after many months of hard work. “I feel great,” he said. The award would not have been possible without a $55,335 grant provided by the Summa Foundation, he said. The research also was supported by University of Akron faculty member Stephanie Lopina, who runs the Biomaterials Lab in the Chemical Engineering Department, and Steven P. Schmidt, of the Falor Division of Surgical Research at Summa Health System.
Mr. Kanjickal said he expects animal studies in about six months and said that FDA approval will have to be sought in order to market the device.
The competition’s director, Todd Finkle, is an associate professor of management at the University of Akron and a fellow of the Fitzgerald Institute. He said the business plan competition is part of an effort to change the business culture of the region. “We are in the middle of transforming the economy of Northeast Ohio into a more entrepreneurial mindset.”
Pritam Das (Bubu) is finishing his MS in Polymer Engineering in University of Akron, Ohio come August. After graduation in Chemical Engg from Surat,India he worked briefly in Mumbai, India in IT area before coming to Ohio for studies less than two years ago. Pritam is a nephew of Dr. Umesh Tahbildar of New Jersey.
The picture shows from left to right, President of University of Akron, Pritam Das, a Venture Capitalist from cleveland, Deenu Kanjichal, President and Chief executive of Federal Reserve of the MidWest Zone, Dave Young, an another Venture Capitalist from Cincinnati.
Umesh Tahbildar, West Windsor, New Jersey
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