Kiger's Notebook

Rochester founder says Tenex is growing quickly

When pro basketball player Pau Gasol of the L.A. Lakers needed damaged tendons in his knee removed this week, his doctor opted for a noninvasive treatment developed by Mayo Clinic instead of the traditional surgery option.

Gasol now is one of about 5,000 patients that have been treated with Tenex Health Inc.'s TX1 instrument, since the firm took its specialty needle system to market at the start of 2012.

Dr. Jagi Gill, of Rochester, founded Tenex in 2009, and it received approval from the Food and Drug Administration in 2011. Since then it has quickly been gaining traction and is now listing "multi-millions" in sales.

"We moved past the 'Will it work?' and 'Can we make it?' stages. Now we are building a sales team and working a marketing message," Gill said.

Tenex now is selling the system to doctors. The firm has 12 sales representatives, and he hopes to grow that number to 40 by the third quarter of 2013.

Gill began his career in Mayo Clinic's Department of Neurology. He has since worked at Boston Scientific as well as a number of biotechnology start-ups.

Tenex's one-time use, disposable handpiece was developed and commercialized in collaboration with Mayo Clinic. Tenex licenses technology from Mayo Clinic and in turn, Mayo owns equity in Tenex.

"The folks at Mayo have been very helpful," he said.

The TX1 system uses ultrasound technology to treat damaged tendons or soft tissue in elbows, knees, ankles, feet and shoulders. Unlike surgery, patients can walk out after what is often a procedure no longer than 20 minutes.

"It is well-tolerated and safe as an injection," says Gill.

That and the quick recovery are making Tenex very popular with athletes, people with work-related injuries and patients who simply "want to have an active lifestyle."

Gasol is not the only celebrity who has discovered Tenex. TV and radio personality Ryan Seacrest has also has his elbow treated with the TX1 system.

At one point, Tenex looked at Rochester, nearby Elk Run and even Willmar, Minn., as possible locations for a manufacturing facility. In the end, the decision was made to acquire the California company that handled the early manufacturing on a contract basis.

So why not do the manufacturing in Rochester?

"The challenge that any company would have in going here is that there isn't a lot of experience in terms of engineering, manufacturing, production, quality systems," says Gill.

He explained that medical device hotspots, not only have a medical system or university for generating ideas, but also "They have an imbedded group of people that know how to turn on an infrastructure."

Tech columnist on Decline and Fall of IBM

I've pointed out the writings of well-known tech columnist Bob Cringely and his dire (and sometimes accurate) predictions about IBM.

As a long-time tech writer, he seems to have to pretty good grasp of how IBM has changed over the years. He has always been very critical of Big Blue's management, which he sees as creating profits at the expense of their employees instead creating of good technology.

Cringely's latest prediction is that IBM will withdraw its 401K contributions for its employees. They have already made some significant changes in that area, from shifting from making 401k contributions in every paycheck to doing it just once a year.

I wonder what local IBMers think about that. Is it possible? Could that be in the works?

The Decline and Fall of IBM is the headline of Cringely's latest column as well as the title of an e-book that is releasing soon.

Here's an excerpt from the column:

IBM is in trouble, you see, serious trouble caused primarily by executive corrosion from within. Not only did Big Blue miss its earnings target last quarter for the first time in years, if the rumors I am hearing are correct the company’s primary response will be to screw U.S. employees even more than they have already.

The rumor I’ve heard is that IBM, which not long ago changed its 401k contribution policy to push what had been a biweekly payment into an annual one right at the end of the year, may have decided this year (and in the future?) not to make any 401K contribution at all. Since IBM’s U.S. employees can divert up to eight percent of their gross compensation into the 401K and IBM has traditionally made a comparable matching payment, this possible change in compensation policy could save the company close to $1 billion.

In one sense one might ask what’s wrong with that? Companies have to do what they have to do in this economy and workers sometimes suffer. But for IBM it indicates the company is getting near the bottom of its bag of tricks for maintaining earnings growth toward that ambitious 2015 goal of $20 per share. Management seem to be down to three ideas to improve the numbers: 1) savage the 401K plan; 2) sell the low-end server business to Lenovo for a reported $2.5 billion, and; 3) expect a miracle called PureSystems.

 

 

 

Plug pulled on IBM's record breaking computer Roadrunner

IBM's record-breaking Roadrunner supercomputer was the fastest computer in the world when introduced five years ago.

But this week, it was retired and soon will be dismantled, surpassed by other machines in the fast-evolving world of supercomputers.

The Roadrunner, which owed much of its hybrid design and manufacture to Big Blue's Rochester campus, was the first machine to break the computer industry's "sound barrier" in 2008 by clocking a petaflop or one quadrillion calculations per second.

“We just all looked around and said, ‘We made it,’” stated Peter Keller, who was part of the Rochester manufacturing team that recorded that historic milestone on May 25, 2008.

The plug was pulled on the $121 million supercomputer on Easter Sunday at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.

"Roadrunner, while I would not define it as strictly obsolete, it has been surpassed by newer technology," said Kevin Roark, of Los Alamos. "It's perfectly normal. …This is the natural progression."

Roadrunner's duties are being shifted over to Los Alamos' Cielo supercomputer, which is made by Seattle-based Cray Inc. Two years younger than Roadrunner, Roark describes it as faster, smaller, less expensive and more energy-efficient than its IBM predecessor.

Until it was shut down, Roadrunner ran 24 hours a day, seven days a week since being delivered to the laboratory via 25 trucks.

While it now is being experimented on as it waits to be dismantled and shredded, Roadrunner took Los Alamos' work on the United States' nuclear weapons stockpile to a new level.

"It has performed remarkably well. It has really helped us solve some fundamental problems that were essentially unsolvable before a computer of its speed," Roark said.

It wasn't just its speed that made Roadrunner so groundbreaking. The revolutionary hybrid design that coordinated the use of different types of computer chips, including Cell chips originally designed in Rochester to be used in Sony's PlayStation 3 video game system.

"Roadrunner was a truly pioneering idea," said Gary Grider, of Los Alamos' High Performance Computing Division, in a statement. "Roadrunner got everyone thinking in new ways about how to build and use a supercomputer."

Los Alamos teamed up with IBM to build Roadrunner from commercially available parts. They ended up with 278 refrigerator-size racks filled with two different types of processors, all linked together by 55 miles of fiber optic cable.

The supercomputer has been used over the last five years to model viruses and unseen parts of the universe, to better understand lasers and for nuclear weapons work. That includes simulations aimed at ensuring the safety and reliability of the nation's aging arsenal.

Roadrunner was the world's fastest computer for 18 months. At its peak, it was two times faster than Blue Gene/L, which was IBM’s star machine and the fastest computer in the world in 2007.

Its historic speed kept Roadrunner on the Top 500 Fastest Computers list, despite being outdated. It still ranked as 22nd fastest machine in the world in November.

IBM had four of the top 10 fastest computers on that November list, and all had roots in Rochester. Sequoia, a BlueGene/ Q, took the No. 2 spot behind Cray's Titan. Other BlueGenes — Miram JUQUEEN and Fermi — locked up the fourth, fifth and ninth spots.

Mayo Clinic extends deal with drug research lab

Here's some from a release I spotted this morning about Mayo Clinic signing an updated agreement with Sanford-Burnham, a research lab with locations in California and Florida.

By the way, the Sanford in Sanford-Burnham is T. Denny Sanford, who is also a big financial backer of Mayo Clinic.

Sanford-Burnham and Mayo Clinic signed a new collaborative agreement to build a pipeline of therapeutic drugs aimed at a variety of diseases with serious unmet medical needs.

-------------------------

The agreement combines Mayo Clinic’s clinically relevant targets with Sanford-Burnham’s discovery platform in a translational initiative aimed at advancing a portfolio of projects through the initial stages of drug discovery. The new agreement builds on a yearlong pilot phase and expands the number and scope of drug discovery projects derived from Mayo Clinic researchers that are being conducted at Sanford-Burnham.

 

“We’re looking forward to further engaging with our Mayo Clinic collaborators as we develop innovative screens to identify chemical compounds that modulate the activity of clinically relevant targets,” said Michael Jackson, vice president of drug discovery and development at Sanford-Burnham. “If successful, these compounds will form the basis of completely novel—‘first in class’—therapies for devastating diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer’s, and others.”

 ------------------

“The Mayo Clinic–Sanford-Burnham collaboration provides an avenue for Mayo scientists to rapidly translate basic science discoveries into screening platforms that will enable new drug discovery, and a new paradigm in drug development,” said Andrew Badley, associate dean of research resources at Mayo Clinic.

Crenlo + Space and Naval Warfare Systems contract

Rochester's manufacturer, Crenlo, has been awarded a federal contract by The Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, which is part of the U.S. Navy.

I don't know a lot about it. It looks to be for customized cabinets under Crenlo's Emcor brand. The cabinets are slated to be used in a moderization project at the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in New Orleans. 

SPAWAR (which always makes me think of Spa War, like Liliac Wellness and Healing Touch fighting on some battlefield somewhere. Heh) has a long relationship with Mayo Clinic.

For many years, the Special Purpose Processor Development Group in the Mayo Support Center has had a contract with SPAWAR to develop/test electronics, some which are used with missiles.

Hhhmmm... Just noticed that contract was renewed last year for $28.4 million and it runs through 2017. Think I need to follow that up one of these days.

Anyway, back to Crenlo, I spotted a posting about its contract on the Federal Business Opportunities website from Feb. 27. Here's some of that:

The SPAWAR Systems Center Atlantic, New Orleans Office intends to award a firm fixed price purchase order for the items on the attached document. Manufacturer-Crenlo.

No other product will be accepted. Brand name only - an equal product will not be accepted. This is a Small Business Set-Aside only. No electronic or hard copy Request for Quote (RFQ) will be prepared or made available for distribution.

-------------

Award will be made on an all or nothing basis. The Government will accept quotes from all responsible sources with the capability to provide the BRAND NAME product cited and will award a contract resulting from this RFQ to the responsible vendor whose offer conforms to the solicitation and is considered to be the Lowest Priced Technically Acceptable offer.

The part numbers must be the manufacturer's part numbers. The Crenlo cabinetry must conform to the critical design requirements of SSCLANT Drawing 29355-525209-01 (attached) and interface with the Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS), Visual Information Display System (VIDS), Enhanced Terminal Voice Switch and Visual Communications System (VISCOM) equipment procured for the National Airspace Modernization at NAS JRB New Orleans.

Crenlo EMCOR has devloped custom mechanical interfaces for this equipment.

S&P lowers Mayo Clinic outlook on "weaker" performance

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services has lowered its outlook on debt issued by and for Mayo Clinic, citing Mayo's "weaker operating performance" in 2012 and unexpected debts.

"We revised the outlook to negative to reflect our opinion of Mayo Clinic's weaker operating performance, especially in the second half of 2012, and additional debt with this issue, which we did not expect and did not include in our last rating analysis," said S&P credit analyst Martin Arrick in a statement issued today. "In addition, Mayo Clinic had to absorb multiple impacts from a sharply lower pension discount rate for the second straight year that, in turn, drove large pension contributions limiting growth in unrestricted cash and investment and lowering unrestricted net assets while raising pro forma leverage to levels we consider high for the rating."

Download S&P rating of Mayo

S&P reaffirmed Mayo's AA long-term rating on Mayo's $300 million series 2013 taxable bonds and reaffirmed ratings on other debt issued for, or guaranteed by, Mayo, according to the statement. The reaffirmed ratings were based on the clinic's "solid revenue growth," debt service coverage and growth in unrestricted reserves.

But the statement says Mayo's "overall leverage and unrestricted net assets were hurt by the very large pension charge for the second year in a row due to a lower discount rate. Nevertheless, net patient service revenues and revenues overall improved significantly, as did unrestricted reserves despite a large cash contribution to the pension plan."

Mayo officials have scheduled a press conference to discuss its 2012 financial results for Wednesday in Rochester.

S.E. Minn. is a pretty inventive area

Wrote the latest version of the annual IBM leads all other companies with U.S. patents story for today's paper.

I always enjoy the change to chat with some of IBM's master inventors and look at their patents. I often don't understand much, but I enjoy it. Heh.

This year I decided to see how many patents issued in 2012 included residents from area cities. I found some interesting stuff, including the fact a group of guys from Hormel in Austin were issued a new patent on a bacon bits making process on Christmas Day.

I hadn't look at these community numbers, since I wrote a big package in early 2010, where I determined that Rochester was the most inventive city inMinnesota and probably the U.S. (per 100,000 residents).

It is interesting to note that Rochester people had 488 patents issued to them in 2009, so the numbers have gone up considerably since then. I may need to take a run at this story again.

 

------------
This is a breakdown of how many patents issued in 2012 included at least one inventor from these southeastern Minnesota cities:

• Rochester — 652 patents

• Byron — 42 patents.

• Stewartville — 10 patents

• Austin — 75 patents

• Mantorville — 27 patents

• Zumbrota — 12 patents

• Pine Island — 36 patents

• Dodge Center — 10 patents

• Lewiston — 14 patents

• Oronoco — 38 patents

Oregon hospital says "No" to proton beam therapy, cites studies

This is some from an interesting story in The Oregonian by Nick Budnick. The context is, of course, that Mayo Clinic is building a proton beam center in downtwon Rochester as well as one in Arizona.

Gary Schwitzer, former Mayo Clinic executive, pointed out the article on the Healthnewsreview.org website. Schwitzer characterized the trend of hospitals building proton beam centers with the very evocative and provocative phrase -  a "medical arms race."

Here's some from Budnick's article:

In recent years, large medical centers around the country have been building massive proton therapy machines costing $100 million and up, marketing them to men with prostate cancer.

For now, Oregon Health & Science University won't be one of them, with officials saying the treatment's cost and continued debate over its benefit have caused them to scrap a push to build one here.

"All of us were interested in exploring it," said Tomasz Beer, deputy director of OHSU's Knight Cancer Institute. But as conventional radiation therapy has improved, "it's not clear today whether proton therapy offers a meaningful and substantial clinical advantage."

University officials have mulled the idea for some time, even hiring an outside consultant about two years ago. Plans to hire another consultant were dropped earlier this year, with officials instead inviting two experts to university leaders, Beer said. Officials made their final decision in the last month or so.

Though the technology is considered useful in some pediatric cancers, studies continue to question its benefit for adults. "It is a technology that for adult tumors may have some advantages but those advantages have not been proven in head to head studies," Beer said. Things could change as the therapy evolves, but "We felt that we couldn't really justify this sort of investment based on the promise that this technology offers as it stands today."

Proton therapy centers can be as big as a football field, but OHSU had been considering a smaller, more recent version that would have cost about $30 million.

The treatment costs significantly more than conventional radiation therapy. Supporters say the therapy offers fewer side effects, but that claim has been undermined by studies released this year, most recently in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Critics call proton therapy an example of profit-driven medicine gone awry.

Proton therapy center operators have received other bad news this year. The federal government recently announced that it will follow through on plans issued this summer to cut Medicare reimbursement for proton therapy by nearly a third. That means centers' per-patient revenue dropped from an estimated $36,000 to $25,000.

Push to find 'Holy Grail' treatment marks historic milestone

A quest for the medical Holy Grail of regenerating a patient's heart tissue to help millions of sufferers and potentially make billions of dollars recently hit a historic milestone, when a Mayo Clinic-developed treatment was given the green light to move into the final stages of testing.

Belgium-based Cardio3 BioSciences licensed Mayo Clinic's research in this area in 2007. That research was led by Mayo Clinic's Dr. Andre Terzic and Dr. Atta Behfar.

The therapy involves taking stem cells from a patient's  bone marrow and through a proprietary process called Cardiopoiesis, re-programs those cells to become heart cells. The cells are then injected back into the patient's heart to repair damaged tissue.

Cardio3 describes the ongoing ties to Mayo Clinic on its web site, "The company's current relationship with Mayo Clinic is essentially based on the technology license agreement, through which the company acquired at arms’ length rights to the majority of its current intellectual property portfolio and which has created a long-term research relationship with Mayo Clinic."

Cardio3 is a  privately owned company that has raised about $57.6 million in financing since it launched. The breakdown of its investors on its website shows Mayo Clinic controls 25 percent of the company's capitalization. In 2011, Cardio3 deepened the already close relationship by establishing its U.S. headquarters in Rochester on the third floor of the Minnesota Biobusiness Center.

It estimated that about 23 million people worldwide are afflicted with congestive heart failure and 2 million new cases are diagnosed each year worldwide. It is a disorder on the increase in the U.S., in particular. Analysts have estimated a successful treatment for congestive heart failure could bring in about $1 billion a year for whatever company that brings it to market.

Many biotechnology firms have been working on their own approaches, but it appears Cardio3 is ahead of others pursuing treatments involving stem cells.

Cardio3 and Mayo Clinic have marked many positive results during Phase I and Phase II clinical trials, while working on this treatment now called C3BS-CQR-1 over the years. Now Cardio3 has been given the green light to follow up its Phase II trial that was conducted between 2009 and 2010 in Belgium, Serbia and Switzerland.

"Heart failure remains a significant unmet clinical need associated with high morbidity, mortality and escalating healthcare costs. We believe C3BS-CQR-1 has a potential to become an alternative to heart transplantation, which is the only curative treatment for heart failure available today," stated Dr Christian Homsy, CEO of Cardio3 BioSciences, in the company's recent announcement. "Our Phase III trial is the first to begin anywhere in the world for a regenerative therapy for this indication. We look forward to confirming the promising results we have already seen in our Phase II study."

The Phase III trial will take place in Belgium. The trial will recruit a minimum of 240 patients with chronic advanced symptomatic heart failure.

Growing tech firm is dialing up larger Rochester facility

Communication is key to getting almost anything done today, making reliable cellular signals very valuable for businesses and individuals.
At the cellular level, keeping people and machines connected is what WPS Antennas is all about.

Just as the cellular industry has exploded in the past decade, WPS has grown from a tiny Rochester business into a global operation with major Fortune 500 companies as customers.

Now WPS, which was formed in 2001, has outgrown its base in the Rochester Airport Business Park on the south side of the city.

WPS Chief Manager Bob Crowley and Marketing Manager Matt Larson are now taking their company north to a much larger facility at 3035 40th Ave. N.W. near Rochester Restaurant Supply in the West Circle Drive Industrial Park.

Mike Haley, of Braasch Commercial Real Estate, handled the deal.

"We're more than doubling our space," Larson syas. "We're essentially going from 2,600-square-feet up to 6,000 square feet."

That means the 10-employee firm will have more room to warehouse its cellular antennas, cabling and related equipment.

When WPS began in 2001, it carried less than 100 different antennas and parts to serve customers. That number has skyrocketed to more than 5,700.

While WPS is not adding staff, the expansion means the firm will be more efficient in designing and assembling customized antennas for its wide variety of clients.

"Right now, everyone is stacked on top of each other," Larson says.

WPS has already started its move. If everything goes as planned, Larson expects to be completely up and running in the new facility by the end of the month.

These aren't your father's TV antennas. WPS provides antenna systems for a national movie DVD vending machine firm plus all sorts of other vending machines that accept credit cards. Their systems can also be found in bank ATMs, cash registers, alarm systems and many other everyday machines that need a constant signal.

WPS antennas are not always the primary communication link. Many companies use antennas as "fail-safe" devices to keep data flowing when a cable is broken. A couple of convenience store chains sport WPS antennas on their roofs to keep the cash registers talking to the head office, even if a backhoe digs through a communication line.

"We're kind of like a backup power generator," Larson says.

Another, smaller piece of their business, is helping homeowners and small businesses to boost cellular phone reception within buildings.

Cellular coverage is becoming such a necessity in today's society that local doctors and others who are on-call for emergencies avoid businesses without adequate signals, Larson says.