Tuesday December 16, 5:30 pm Eastern Time
Company Press Release
SOURCE: UCSD CONNECT
10th Annual Most Innovative New Product Winners Announced!
SAN DIEGO, Dec. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Seven San Diego-area technology companies won top honors at UCSD CONNECT's Tenth Annual Most Innovative New Products Awards competition. A record 900 attended the sold-out event where keynote speaker Paul Steiger, Managing Editor of the Wall Street Journal discussed ''How the Wall Street Journal Covers High-Tech.'' News Anchor Marty Levin of KNSD-TV Channel 39 moderated the program.
The competition awarded companies in seven categories: Entertainment & Leisure, General Business, High-Tech Electronics, Life Sciences, and Software, as well as the two new categories of Internet and Telecommunications. The winners for this year's competition are as follows:
ROKENBOK Toy Company's ROKENBOK System is the Entertainment & Leisure winner. The ROKENBOK building system takes the classic construction system to the next level with its patent pending AMD-RD technology. The large scale system is designed to build interactive play environments for Rokenbok precision control RC vehicles. The AMD-RD technology allows a maximum of 4 players to drive and control up to 8 RC vehicles simultaneously. It's the classic toy of the future.
The winner for General Business is XXsys Technologies for ROBO-WRAPPER. ROBO-WRAPPER is a computerized, automated winding machine that wraps prepreg tow (carbon fiber which has been pre-impregnated in resin) around bridge columns and parking-structure columns. The machine rotates around the column to form a ''jacket'' that conforms to the shape of the column. The purpose of the jacket is to prevent the column from collapsing during an earthquake.
XLNT Incorporated won in the High-Tech Electronics category for the Millenium 4000. Designed to ensure fast, reliable data access for Internet, multimedia and other high bandwidth applications, the Millennium 4000(TM) is a fault-tolerant Gigabit ethernet switch that seamlessly enables data-intensive industries such as finance, manufacturing, science, health care and government agencies a ten to 100 fold increase in their data access time over previously available technologies.
Advanced Tissue Sciences' Dermagraft-TC is the Life Sciences winner. Dermagraft-TC is a human fibroblast-derived temporary skin substitute consisting of a polymer membrane and neonatal human fibroblast cells cultured in vitro on a nylon mesh. It is used as a temporary wound covering for surgically excised full-thickness and deep partial-thickness thermal burn wounds in patients.
Wright Strategies won in the software category for FormLogic. FormLogic, a software application platform for developing, deploying and managing applications that extend line-of-business processes, allows corporations to build and manage handheld applications to automate any process previously requiring pencil and clipboard data collection, thereby turning handheld computers into corporate productivity tools and extending the power of the enterprise information system to the mobile field force.
The Internet winner is PersonaLogic for their Personalized Decision Guides. Personalized Decision Guides enable consumers to make informed choices about complex products and services. They also allow the consumers to quickly and efficiently sort through massive amounts of current data.
In the final category, Telecommunications, the winner is Peregrine Semiconductor for their PE 3282A. The PE 3282A, a phase-locked-loop (PLL) integrated circuit for the wireless communication and satellite industries, is the first product to employ Peregrine's revolutionary UTSi(R) (Ultra-Thin- Silicon) process for design and production -- a unique technological breakthrough that will allow total integration of all wireless communication components on a single chip.
CONNECT also presented a ''Sponsors' Award'' this year to a company for significantly contributing to the vitality of San Diego's emerging high-tech and biotech community. It was awarded to Agouron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. for being the first San Diego biotechnology company to have a therapeutic product approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration. This product -- VIRACEPT(R) -- has quickly become an important part of the treatment for HIV infection. UCSD CONNECT and the MIP selection committee would like to commend Agouron for their efforts in the development of this new drug which represents a leap forward for the San Diego biotechnology industry.
VIRACEPT, developed by Agouron Pharmaceuticals Incorporated [Nasdaq:AGPH - news] is a therapeutic drug indicated for the treatment of HIV infection when antiretroviral therapy is warranted. This indication is based on analyses of surrogate marker changes in patients who received VIRACEPT in combination with nucleoside analogues or alone for up to 24 weeks.
In March 1997, VIRACEPT became the first HIV protease inhibitor to be cleared for marketing simultaneously in an adult formulation and in a pediatric formulation. VIRACEPT was approved in Switzerland in June 1997; and, approval is pending in Canada as well as in the European Union and five non-European countries, including Japan. The anti-HIV potency of VIRACEPT, coupled with its favorable safety and tolerability will make a valuable contribution to the ability to hit the virus hard and early with combination therapy. Currently, more than 60,000 people in the U.S. are estimated to be taking VIRACEPT.
Recently a key committee of the National Institutes of Health issued new HIV treatment guidelines that strongly urge a general policy of earlier intervention in the disease with three-drug combination therapy containing a potent protease inhibitor like VIRACEPT.
Agouron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. discovers, develops, manufactures and markets novel, small molecule drugs engineered to inactivate proteins which play key roles in cancer, AIDS, and other serious diseases. VIRACEPT is a registered trademark of Agouron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
The awards were handed out by Gregg Carpenter, J&H Marsh & McLennan - Entertainment & Leisure; Ted Owen, San Diego Business Journal - General Business; Jeremy Glaser, Cooley Godward LLP - High-Tech Electronics; Tom Insley, Price Waterhouse LLP - Life Sciences; Mark Fackler, Stellcom Technologies - Software; UC Regent Peter Preuss, The Preuss Foundation - Internet; Chris Woolley, Imperial Bank - Telecommunications; and Bill Otterson, UCSD CONNECT - The ''Sponsors' Award.''
The Most Innovative New Products Awards was created by UCSD CONNECT in 1988 to recognize the tremendous amount of innovation taking place in San Diego companies. This year's competition included 95 entries in the seven categories. Since its inception in 1988, the awards have honored locally developed products and programs from companies such as SDG&E, Azron, QUALCOMM, Pyxis Corporation, Proxima Corporation and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC).
Sponsors of this year's competition are Cooley Godward LLP, Price Waterhouse LLP, Imperial Bank, J&H Marsh & McLennan, The San Diego Business Journal, and Stellcom Technologies.
UCSD CONNECT, a Division of Extended Studies & Public Programs at the University of California, San Diego, was formed in 1985 to encourage and foster the growth of high-tech and life sciences companies in the San Diego region. CONNECT is completely self-supporting from membership dues and fees from its programs. For further information about UCSD CONNECT, see our website at connect.org.
SOURCE: UCSD CONNECT
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