State’s Healthcare Entrepreneurs have a Friend in Ben Franklin

“As I See It” by John G. Edwards, CEO of Apeliotus Vision Science, Hershey, PA

As Reported in the Patriot News, Tuesday, December 21, 2010

I read somewhere that through the last 28 years, Ben Franklin Technology Partners has invested in roughly 3,000 emerging, tech-based companies.  I was impressed, but also grateful, because one of them is mine.  My partner and I started Apeliotus Vision Science, which is in the Hershey Center for Applied Research. We developed a new diagnostic device for the detection of early stage, age-related macular degeneration. A lot of folks don’t know much about AMD, even though it’s the leading cause of adult blindness.

The problem is that the early stage of the disease generally doesn’t have symptoms. Until we came up with our product, the AdaptDx, there was no practical way to know you had AMD until you had already started losing your vision.  We knew we had a good idea; one that would not only save people’s eyesight, but also one that could be the springboard for a high-growth health care company. I know it should be obvious; when you grow, you hire.

But here’s the rub: The development and commercialization of a new technology, especially in a heavily regulated industry like health care, is a lengthy process.  Being able to keep the lights on while you make the transition from R&D concept to having a product to sell means you need a very patient investor.

But when your business is pre-revenue, you have no assets on the books, and there’s no cash flow so there aren’t a lot of investor options. We needed financing that could act as a bridge between our own seed funding on the front end and what will be available later from conventional equity investors and banks.

Fortunately, Pennsylvania has programs such as Ben Franklin Technology Partners and the Life Sciences Greenhouse.  Ben Franklin’s investment in us has been critical to our continued progress. Besides funding, it offered us extensive business mentoring in the form of an “Executive in Residence.”  Basically, it gave us the opportunity to tap into the resources of a med-device professional on its staff who had years of experience in bringing innovative medical devices to market.

It even helped connect us with Pennsylvania-based design and manufacturing sources, which has been really cost-effective for us, and kept some folks at those companies working as well.

Apeliotus Vision Science is getting critical support in making the transition to commercial viability. Pennsylvania will get a return on its investment in dollars and jobs.   This past year a lot of people said Pennsylvania had to cut back on spending because of the pending deficit and continued bad economy.

I’m sure there are many PA-funded programs that will find themselves on the chopping block again this time. The Legislature is going to have to make hard choices.  Spreading the budget-cut pain might sound like the best or fairest approach.  But when an anemic economy is losing thousands of jobs, why not support programs such as Ben Franklin that provide the remedy?  Pennsylvania’s entrepreneurs and the people they hire need that option.