Steve Edwards

Catching Up

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you have realized that your regular reading has been interrupted for the last two months. I have been negligent, I admit, and I beg your forgiveness. My excuse: after 10 years of supporting myself as an analyst/consultant I have finally found a real job. I am now teaching in the Biology Dept. of Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) in Murfreesboro, TN, located conveniently about 20 minutes from my house. It is also the school from which my wife Sally hopes to graduate, after 10+ years of being a part-time student. Although I have been distracted by the pressures of working regular hours, I hope to continue this blog, albeit at perhaps at occasionally protracted intervals.

I teach an MTSU graduate class called Issues in Biotechnology in which we tour local biotech firms and they give us real world problems for my band of young consultants to solve. This is free brainpower folks; if you’re in the Nashville area and you want some help, e-mail me at sedwards@mtsu.edu. I also teach undergraduate Anatomy and Physiology, a huge class involving nursing and pharmacology majors that pretty much pays the bills for the Biology Dept.

Nanotechnology 2006

On September 26th, I gave a presentation called Nanotech-Enabled Biosensors at Nanotechnology 2006, a conference held at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY. This is an annual conference organized by Raj Bawa, President of Bawa Biotechnology Consulting. The conference is sort of a homecoming event for Rensselaer alumni, of which Raj is one.

The highlight of the event, in my opinion, was a humorous talk by Nobel prize winner Ivar Giaever, a biophysicist, who is also the founder of Applied Physics, Inc., about the perils of establishing a new tech enterprise. Two of Giaver’s lines: 1) Conventional wisdom states that if you build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a footpath to your door—unfortunately, this is absolutely false. 2) Conventional wisdom states that good scientists make lousy businessmen—unfortunately, this is absolutely true.

Afterwards, I had the pleasure of standing around at the reception with Giaever and a strange inventor-type named Ford Oxaal. After establishing that we all shared a Norwegian heritage (my real patronymic should be Iversen), we discussed ways of perfecting Oxaal’s latest invention, a 360 degree camera. Oxaal was trying to increase the resolution through the use of nanotube pinholes, while making the camera addressable by satellite. I think Giaever and I convinced him that you couldn’t efficiently use a pinhole smaller than the wavelength of visible light. Whatever, the conversation was a success, since I managed to sell a copy of my book, The Nanotech Pioneers, to Ford.

The Edwards Real Nanotech Index

As the Dow has marched to 12,000, the Edwards Real Nanotech Index (ERNI) has failed to follow suit. In fact, it is languishing about 5% below its initial price from February of this year.

There are some exceptions. NVE Corp. has gained over 100% in these last eight months. Most of that gain has come over speculation that NVE will realize royalties from Freescale Semiconductor’s magnetic RAM chips. This is an old story that has flared several times before. So far, there is no indication that Freescale intends to divvy up any of its profits to NVE. On the other hand, NVE is profitable and isgrowing its revenues handsomely on its own spintronics products. But it’s probably ahead of itself here. I urge caution.

Raymor is up over 90%. This sounds terrific, but it has actually plunged in value over the last several months. This is a very small, very volatile company based in Montreal.

Harris & Harris is down slightly over the last eight months, but this represents a large appreciation $13 a share over its low of around $9.00.

At any rate, conventional wisdom holds that large cap companies will outperform over small caps for the time being. I think that is probably true until the end of the year. Based on enormous political and other changes, I confidently predict that 2007 will be entirely unpredictable.

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Great, Inexpensive Nanotech Conference at Renssellaer

For a mere $150 (less if you’re an alumnus), you can attend a great Nanotechnology 2006 conference at Renssellaer Polytechnic University in Troy, NY, September 25 and 26. This annual conference is organized by Raj Bawa of Bawa Biotechnology Consulting LLC.

This conference has it all. Ivar Giaever, a Nobel prize winner and founder of Applied Biophysics, gives the initial “Nobel Lecture.” There are four keynote speakers: Neil Gordon, President of the Candian NanoBusiness Alliance; David Flynn, Partner at Phillips Lytle LLP; Joseph Bronzino, President of the Biomedical Engineering Alliance and Consortium, and professor at Trinity College; and Clinton Ballinger, President and CEO of Evident Technologies.

The international cast of speakers includes representatives of the National Cancer Institute, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Harvard Medical School, GE Global Research, IBM, The US Patent Office, Foley and Larnder, IBM Global Business Services, Lux Research, Johns Hopkins, and many individuals from Renssellear itself, one of the finest engineering schools in the country. Plus, I’ll be there, giving a talk on nanotech biosensors and diagnostics on the 25th.

It’s a beautiful time of the year in upstate New York. I plan to blog my impressions for those unable to attend.

ERNI Back in the Black

The Edwards Real Nanotech Index was sporting a modest profit since its inception in February, after the market managed to put together a modest winning streak last week.

A standout was NVE Corp., which jumped about 40%. The company’s press releases don’t reveal any specific news, but a TwinCities Business reported that the company’s technology is used in a new hearing aid. Nice to know, but it doesn’t seem like the sort of volume product that could really amp revenues for NVE.

Veeco tacked on a 10% gain, and FEI and Abraxis about 5% in the feel-good market.

On August 17th, Nanophase announced its first sale of a nanoparticle for a textile application to be introduced “to the industry on a global basis.” Name of the customer and details of the application remain confidential. More stain-resistant pants?

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ERNI Rebounds

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I’ve been remiss in updating this blog in recent weeks, so I’ll try to make up for it. First, the Edwards Real Nanotech Index (ERNI) bounced back somewhat last week, improving by over 5%. Abraxis BioScience, NVE Corp. and Luna Innovations were responsible for most of the improvement, each up more than 20%.

ERNI component Altair Nanotechnologies nearly doubled its revenues from year ago levels, breaking the $1 million dollar mark for the second quarter.. Batteries, battery packs and battery systems were given credit for the increase. However, the company is still operating at a loss, losing 6 cents a share in the quarter.

FEI Company also reported record bookings and revenue for a second quarter, but the latter was up just 5% from year ago levels. Revenues came in at $113.1 million, but the backlog was over $243 million. Earnings were $4.1 million or 11 cents per diluted share. The company’s Titan electron microscope, which has sub-atomic resolution, is responsible for much of the backlog.

Not to be outdone, Nanophase Technologies also posted record second quarter revenue, at 2.4 million, 15% above last years levels. Their quarterly loss stayed the same at $1.1 million or 6 cents per share. During the second half of 2006, Nanophase anticipates introducing new nanomaterials targeted for antimicrobial, catalyst, and architectural and industrial coating applications.

Harris & Harris, a venture capital firm, announced that it has invested $18 million in “tiny technology” to date in 2006 vs. $16 million in all of 2005. Its net asset value was $5.68 per share vs. a stock price currently of $9.70. The net asset value is up about $1.00 from a year ago. Jack Uldritch of Motley Fool, recently recommended H & H as a play on intellectual property, citing specifically its holdings in Nanosys, Nantero, Nanomix, and Molecular Imprints.

Delivering an Anti-Cancer Payload with Nanoparticles

Insert Therapeutics has treated its first patient with its first drug candidate, called IT101, which consists of nanoparticle-encapsulated camptothecin, an anticancer agent. While camptothecin has been known as a potential chemotherapy agent for years, it has never been used in human patients previously because of solubility problems. Insert solves this problem by wrapping up the drug in a proprietary linear cyclodextrin polymer. Cyclodextrin is essentially a form of starch and so there are few safety concerns with this type of delivery system. The cyclodextrin system was invented by Mark Davis, a CalTech chemistry professor. Animal studies have been promising, with complete remission seen in a type of lung cancer.

Although camptothecin itself is insoluble, analogues of the compound are already used in chemotherapy, with a combined worldwide market of about $1 billion. It remains to be seen whether Insert’s IT101 is an improvement over the drugs that are already marketed.

Insert is majority owned by Arrowhead Research [NASDAQ-ARWR], which is a component of the Edwards Real Nanotech Index (ERNI).

Insert hopes to mimic the success of Abraxis Bioscience (another ERNI component), whose FDA-approved product Abraxane consists of the chemotherapy drug paclitaxel delivered using an albumin-based nanoparticle. Before Abraxane, delivery of paclitaxel required a very noxious solvent and patients had to be maintained on steroids in order to tolerate the drug.

Speaking of Abraxis, it is the subject of a favorable analysis by Mark Phillips, The 10Q Detective. On the downside though, he accuses CEO Patrick Soon-Shiong of having a “Martha Stewart” complex and complains about his $825,000 salary and the company’s provision of security for him and his family. But here is the money quote: “Nonetheless, the Common Stock price of Abraxis is such a screaming BUY—we do not mind looking askance at this piggish display.”

Phillips points out that Goldman Sachs calcualated an enterprise value of $62.53 per share for Abraxis. The stock was up $1.30 yesterday, to all of $21.59.

ERNI Down Again

The Edwards Real Nanotech Index (ERNI) was down again last week in line with the rest of the market, with fears of WWIII getting underway in the Middle East. Despite the neocon’s wetdreams, we think this is an unlikely outcome. And ERNI rallied strongly with the rest of the market yesterday, as the Dow advanced over 200 points on Fed chairman Ben Bernanke’s calming testimony before the Senate.

ERNI component NVE Corp. announced its earnings today. Product sales were up 71% over the prior year to $3.05 million. Income per share was 19 cents a share versus 9 cents in the year earlier period. The company has retired all its debt and has increased its cans and investments by almost $900,000 in the quarter. Hard to argue with a quarter like that. The stock opened up over a dollar higher as the market seemed to like the numbers.

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More Reviews of Nanotech Pioneers

More kind words about my book, The Nanotech Pioneers: Where are they taking us?:

"A vivid and realistic look at nanotechnology, written by an insider and experienced science writer, providing a view of how this new field will affect people in the near future. The author looks at the social, political and economic changes involved."
Enviromental Science and Polution Research

"Edwards writes with such passion that it is hard not to be infected with the nanotech bug. His words fill the reader with optimism that nanotechnology really is the next big thing."
The Lancet

"...the author offers a plain and non-technical guide to the field of nanotechnology. This is an easy-to-understand introduction to nanotechnology. Hence, the book is recommendable to all experimental natural scientists in academic organizations as well as in industry. It is a brief, simple, almost math-free introduction, easy to understand and in no way boring."
Engineering in Life Sciences

Luna Added to ERNI

Last week was the debut of Luna Innovations in the Edwards Real Nanotech Index (ERNI). The dollar value of Luna stock added was at the average of the current components and the divisor (fudge factor) was adjusted to make the addition neutral to the value of the index.

ERNI was down slightly last week. There was nothing in the news background to move nanotech stocks one way or the other. Earnings season is coming. NVE looks to be the first up, with a conference call scheduled for July 20. Incidentally, NVE seems to be on a tear this week in a down market; its stock price is up about $2.00 from last Friday’s close. I have seen no news from the company to account for the rise.

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Introducing Luna Innovations

As of July 1st, 2006, Luna Innovations is the newest component of the Edwards Real Nanotech Index (ERNI). The company only recently went public; on June 2, the company offered 3.5 million shares at $6.00 each, which is about where it is currently trading.

Luna has four divisions: Contract Research, Luna Advanced Systems, and Luna Technologies, and Luna NanoWorks.

Contract Research currently supplies most of the company’s income. Their specialties are things like coatings that repel water, corrosion, heat, electromagnetic interference and nasty micro-organisms; polymer photovoltaic devices; fiber optics; and medical diagnostic and monitoring systems.

Luna Advanced Systems is working on medical and industrials sensing devices. The company recently released an ultrasound device to detect emboli in the blood stream. Emboli can be anything with the potential to block flow, but particularly bubbles and clots. Luna’s Emboli Detector and Quantifier system can detect microemboli at rates as high as 1000 per second. The system uses tracking systems originally developed for missile defense. The instrument is targeted toward cardiothoracic surgeons, anesthesiologists and perfusionists. Luna Advanced Systems also markets techy items to the federal government.

Luna Technologies makes fiber optic test and measurement systems—for instance the Optical Vector Analyzer and the Optical Backscatter Reflectometer (you wanted to know, didn’t you?). Basically this is test equipment for optical telecommunications networks.

Luna nanoWorks develops and manufactures proprietary fullerene products. It is located in Danville, VA, once a center of the tobacco industry. The city fathers, in order to fight rising unemployment that has been twice the state’s average, have been promoting the areas’ charms to the nanotech industry, with a lot of help from the state government. Luna has taken over a former tobacco warehouse on the banks of the Dan River. The company gutted the inside, leaving only beams and the foot-thick brick walls. In this unlikely space, they are building what they hope to be a nanotech powerhouse, capable of producing ton quantities of nanomaterials. An old railroad spur backs up to the warehouse/factory, awaiting the day when this promise is fulfilled. A cobblestone street in front of the building completes the picture of a nineteenth century setting for this high tech upstart.

The president of Luna NanoWorks, Stephen Wilson, is a former chemistry professor from New York State University, and is also the scientific founder of another nanotech firm, C-Sixty. Wilson was one of the first to see the possibilities inherent in buckyballs—cornering on behalf of C-Sixty much of the then available intellectual property surrounding medical applications of that curious molecule.

In addition to commercial production carbon nanotubes and buckyballs, the company hopes to commercialize what it calls trimetaspheres. These are a larger version of the buckyball, with 80 carbons caging up to three metal or rare earth atoms, such as scandium, lanthanum or yttrium, which are covalently to nitrogen. The nitrogen complex spins freely within the larger cage of carbons. Trimetaspheres were invented by accident when an air leak contaminated a reactor being used to make buckyballs. Rather than merely discard the preparation and start over, Harry Dorn, a professor at Virginia Tech University decided to characterize the anomalous chemical species that were thus formed. Science was once again served by the unplanned experiment and a curious mind.

According to Wilson, trimetaspheres have potential uses as contrast agents for medical magnetic resonance imagining, as light emitting diodes, and potentially for molecular electronics and computing.