Bridge4Bio targets four strategic areas to boost life science business growth

Bridge4Bio, an international business consultancy group focused on promoting the growth of life sciences and biotechnology companies, is targeting four strategic areas to assist both startups and established companies plan and grow their businesses globally. Bridge4Bio's team of senior consultants addresses the following:

Channel Development
Bridge4Bio's senior management team with its global coverage helps clients find the appropriate distributor, or choose appropriate partners for OEM mergers or licensing deals to expand their business.

Strategic Marketing
Bridge4Bio provides guidance on how to build and implement a global business plan including developing new and existing product line channel strategies. Advice covers implementing market promotions and communication programmes, agreement negotiation, as well as ensuring IP and profitability are solid to capitalize on future opportunities.

Global Sourcing
Bridge4Bio's international experience simplifies identifying the best sources to manufacture product, reduce cost, negotiate contracts, or improve quality through long-term global partnerships to gain a competitive advantage.

Capital Investment
Bridge4Bio is well connected to Silicon Valley and global investment contacts to act as a bridge between the client and an appropriate investor or partnership company.

"Forming a partnership with Bridge4Bio allows life sciences and biotechnology companies, both large and small, to maximize their growth potential while working with tight budgets," explained Hugh Douglas, Bridge4Bio's president. "Start-ups, small to mid-sized companies or those organizations needing to develop and expand their business globally with limited resources can all benefit from our global team of experts that are highly skilled and experienced at driving and managing operations, marketing, sales and business development across the full spectrum of the life sciences sector".

Bridge4Bio's knowledge and expertise covers academic research, drug discovery, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, proteomics and genomics, medical devices and diagnostics.

Douglas continued: "Bridge4Bio provides our clients the experience of a network of ten international life sciences and biotechnology consultants who have all experienced first-hand the start-up and growth challenges faced by life sciences and biotechnology businesses in global markets. 

"We cover the world.  Clients benefit from our pool of experienced professionals immediately.

"Retaining Bridge4Bio also helps a company minimize risk by automatically giving access to a team of ten business experts with specialist global knowledge to work on projects.  In this way an organization can benefit from growing the business for a fraction of the cost of hiring a single employee for a year and then finding out later that the hire strategy did not work out.  We call it simply the 'Power of Ten'.

"Another advantage of using Bridge4Bio's team is that we recognize that companies may not have the funds for high-priced consultants. So much of our fee structure is charged as commissions based on the sales/results of a growing business. The client pays us based on the success of the implementation which means that the up-front cost and risk is further reduced for our clients."

Bridge4Bio exhibited at Analytica 2010, Munich, Germany.

Bridge4Bio is a business consultancy group focused on promoting the growth of life science companies.

President, Hugh Douglas offers more than 20 years of experience in managing general operations, manufacturing, R&D, finance and administration, and marketing and business development. Douglas, who was formerly the managing director/president of Hoefer, Inc., a global electrophoresis company, as well as vice president of West Coast Operations for Amersham Biosciences, also has experience in acquisitions and raising capital for new ventures.

Headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, Bridge4Bio maintains satellite offices in Sweden, United Kingdom, Israel, Southeast Asia, and India.

For further information, e-mail: press@bridge4bio.com or view website: www.bridge4bio.com   Refer to page 263

SpectraSuite-PAR module allows users to determine Photosynthetically Active Radiation parameters

A new add-on module for Ocean Optics' www.OceanOptics.eu SpectraSuite Spectrometer Operating Software allows users of the company's miniature spectrometers and Jaz optical sensing systems to calculate Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR), an important parameter for evaluating the effect of light on plant growth. SpectraSuite-PAR uses the absolute irradiance spectrum (captured by the spectrometer) of the light incident on plants and other samples and conveniently converts the irradiance values from µW/cm2 (microwatts per square centimetre) to µmol/m2/s (micromoles per square meter per second), the measurement unit more commonly used for PAR analysis.

Refer to image: New SpectraSuite-PAR software from Ocean Optics allows users of the company's miniature spectrometers to easily calculate Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR) for plant analysis.

In addition to calculating total PAR, SpectraSuite-PAR allows users to define up to five "wavelength bins" (the range of wavelengths to be covered in each data bin), which can be correlated to different phases of plant growth. For example, a bin can be configured over the 400-480 nm range to capture the effects of the blue region of the spectrum, which is typically associated with early stages of plant growth. Also, customers can calculate both the percentage of light in each bin and the red/far red ratio, a parameter associated with plant development and structure.

SpectraSuite-PAR is a particularly powerful analytical tool when used as part of a field-portable Jaz sensing system configured for horticultural applications. Jaz is a family of modular, stackable components -- a typical setup for field use is about the size of a few decks of cards -- that share common electronics and communications. At its heart is a miniature CCD-array spectrometer, or light measuring device, available with user-selected grating and slit options optimised for a variety of optical sensing application needs. Also incorporated into the Jaz stack is a powerful microprocessor and onboard display with data logging capability, so that full spectra data can be acquired, processed and stored to an SD card without the need for a PC. Jaz irradiance measurement software is also available and nicely complements the SpectraSuite-PAR functions.

SpectraSuite is the standard operating software for Ocean Optics spectrometers. The modular, Java-based spectroscopy software platform operates on Windows, Macintosh and Linux operating systems. The SpectraSuite interface is virtually identical on all operating systems yet retains the familiar appearance of an application native to each OS. SpectraSuite has a wide range of standard functions, from managing multiple USB spectrometers and identifying centre wavelength and other peak metrics to calculating colour parameters such as CIE illuminants and Colour Rendering Index and measuring photometric values such as luminous flux and photopic standard observer functions.

Ocean Optics is a leading supplier of solutions for optical sensing - fundamental methods of measuring and interpreting the interaction of light with matter. With locations in the United States, Asia and Europe, the company has sold more than 150,000 spectrometers worldwide since 1989. Ocean Optics' extensive line of complementary technologies includes chemical sensors, analytical instrumentation, optical fibres, thin films and optics. The company is part of the Halma group of safety and detection companies.

For further information, e-mail: info@oceanoptics.eu or view website: www.OceanOptics.eu  Refer to page 265

White light turbidity meter provides rapid analysis of drinking water quality

The easy-to-operate turbidity meter from Camlab, uses a white light source and a 90 degree infrared detection technique to meet the specifications for EPA turbiditmeasurement (EPA Standard 180.1) which is a standard procedure for analysing the quality of UK drinking water.
 
The portable Camlab Water TB200 white light turbidity meter is designed to quickly provide reliable on-site analysis of water samples for various applications, ranging from drinking water to waste water.  

The new instrument, which is capable of achieving 600 tests without battery change, is ideal for fast, precise on-site testing of water quality in the following application sectors: aquaculture, utilities, power, field measurement and industrial manufacturing.
 
The compact instrument features an Auto-Ranging feature that automatically selects the correct turbidity range for a sample.
 
Calibration of the turbidity meter is simple and the instrument comes complete with four turbidity standards <0.1, 20, 200 and 800 NTU, battery and test vials, in a carrying case.

For further information, view website: www.camlab.co.uk  Refer to page 259