News & Views
	Sept/Oct 2006,

Baxa Corporation
At a ceremony held in August at its Englewood-based world headquarters, Baxa Corporation opened its state-of-the-art STAR (Skills Training, Academics and Resources) Center for pharmacy and cleanroom skills training.  Baxa designed and built the STAR Center as a fully USP 797-compliant pharmacy cleanroom to provide professional education on pharmacy practice, cleanroom principles and compliance to regulatory requirements.  The STAR Center, the only dedicated facility of its kind in the world for hands-on cleanroom experience and training in environmental monitoring and aseptic technique, provides a unique opportunity for industry professionals to learn best practice from subject-matter expert trainers.
The first class in the STAR Center, Compliance Tools and Aseptic Certification for USP 797, takes place the week of September 20th 2006.  This ACPE-certified training targets pharmacy and IV managers, but provides relevant content for all personnel who compound sterile products.  Over 2-1/2 days, the Continuing Education (CE) course covers practical implementation of cleanroom principles and practices that comply with USP 797 and hands-on experience in industry best practice.  Topics for this initial program include cleanroom physical design and layout, engineering controls and airflow science, media fill testing and principles associated with work flow, staff training, cleaning, monitoring, validation and documentation.
 Speaking at the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Baxa CEO Greg Baldwin noted, “As the only company focused on making hospital pharmacy operations more efficient, Baxa has built true partnerships with our customers.  The STAR Center takes that partnership a step further by backing our products with world-class training in best practice.”  Following the speech, Baxa associates at the company’s headquarters were invited to an open house at the STAR Center – to see first-hand how the facility has come together since the early planning last winter.
 Baxa Corporation sponsored the STAR Center to further best practices in hospital pharmacy.  The STAR Center brings together professional and industry partners to provide participants with a range of experience in equipment, technology and design.  Pete Campanella PharmaD, Baxa Director of Professional Services affirms that “The STAR Center provides pharmacies with an unparalleled opportunity to improve performance and regulatory compliance.  However, the facility has application for many other related industries for training in best practices.  We are working with pharmaceutical manufacturers, cleanroom certifiers and others to develop additional course content.”  Future class offerings will be determined through professional interest and facility requirements.
 About Baxa Corporation
 Baxa, a customer-focused medical device company, provides innovative, solution-based technologies for fluid handling and delivery.  Its systems and devices promote the safe and efficient preparation, handling, packaging, and administration of fluid medications.  Privately held, Baxa Corporation has subsidiaries and sales offices in Canada and the United Kingdom; direct representation in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg and The Netherlands; and distribution partners worldwide.  Further information is available at http://www.baxa.com.

ApopLogic Pharmaceuticals
ApopLogic Pharmaceuticals (Aurora) won the second annual Faegre & Benson Venture Showcase Award at the BioWest 2006.  The announcement is made by Chris Shapard, bioscience director at the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT), who says the $10,000 Venture Showcase Award was again provided by the Faegre & Benson law firm and announced at the Colorado Bioscience Association (CBSA) Awards banquet held Thursday evening at the Colorado Convention Center.
ApopLogic Pharmaceuticals is a startup phase biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of therapeutic products that target apoptotic cell death pathways found in tumor cells and proliferating immune cells (lymphocytes). The company was formed in 2006 to capitalize on the intellectual property of its scientific founders, University of Colorado tenured faculty Drs. Richard Duke and Donald Bellgrau. Putting it most simply, ApopLogic induces cancer cells and autoimmune lymphocytes to commit suicide.
1. API-100 uses Fas ligand, a cell death-inducing molecule with unique pro-inflammatory properties, for the treatment of cancer and autoimmune disorders.
2. API-200 uses proprietary combinations of cell-type specific growth factors and cell signaling agonists to treat Sezary leukemia, cutaneous T cell lymphoma and psoriasis.
3. API-300 uses a novel class of growth factor receptor antagonists to target a broad range of cancers.
Building on strong pre-clinical data and using several local consultants, including Drs. Paul Bunn and Timothy Rodell, ApopLogic Pharmaceuticals is outlining detailed clinical development plans to rapidly move drug candidates identified in the API-100, API-200 and API-300 programs into phase 1 human clinical trials that could begin within 12 months of series A financing.
ApopLogic Pharmaceuticals competed against six other Rocky Mountain regional companies for this honor.  Additional participants included Caveo Therapeutics (Aurora);  LigoCyte (Bozeman, Montana); MBC Pharma, Inc. (Boulder); MedShape Solutions (Castle Rock); Solix Biofuels (Boulder); and TheraTogs, Inc. (Telluride).  A brief explanation of each company’s technology and business plan can be found at http://www.biowestconference.com.
According to Denise Brown, CBSA Executive Director, representatives of each competing company had 10 minutes to present their technologies and business plans to a panel of bioscience venture capitalists on Wednesday afternoon. The venture capitalist panelists included: Kyle Lefkoff, Boulder Ventures, who served as moderator; Heidi Huntsman, UV Partners; Paul Grand, RCT Ventures; and Giovanni Ferrara, Burrill and Company.
Colorado OEDIT
About the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade
OEDIT works with companies starting, expanding, or relocating in Colorado. OEDIT offers a wide range of services to assist new and existing business of every size. 
Visit http://www.AdvanceColorado.com
 
BioScience Association
About Colorado BioScience Association
 CBSA is a not-for-profit corporation providing services and support for Colorado’s growing biosciences industry.  With more than 300 members, CBSA actively works to promote the growth of the industry by working for a better business environment, grow the state’s biotech workforce, fight for policies that support a strong bioscience industry in the state and speak with a single voice on behalf of the industry.  For more information, visit http://www.cobioscience.com

Faegre & Benson, LLP
About Faegre & Benson LLP
 Faegre & Benson LLP is a full-service law firm with offices in Denver, Boulder, Minneapolis, Des Moines, London, Frankfurt and Shanghai, with more than 100 attorneys in Colorado and more than 475 worldwide.  Faegre & Benson is proud to support the Colorado and national bioscience industry with services in corporate law, intellectual property, labor and employment, financial transactions and a wide range of other legal services.  For more information, visit http://www.faegre.com

The Star Center
About The Star Center
 The STAR Center is a state-of-the-art cleanroom, pharmacy and training facility located at the Baxa world headquarters in Englewood, Colorado.  The center was purpose-built to support training in aseptic technique, pharmacy workflow and practice, cleanroom design and maintenance and USP 797 compliance among other topics. Classes will be taught by industry-recognized subject matter experts. Further information is available at http://www.baxa.com/starcenter.