Is your primary business location in Tarrant Country?

Do you have annual revenues between $100,000 and $500,000?

If so, then you’re eligible to compete in the 2012 Forth Worth Business Plan Competition being put on by the Fort Worth Business Assistance Center and presented by Capital One.

According to the website,

The competition provides an opportunity for small businesses operating in Tarrant County to receive training and coaching on strengthening their business and allows participants the chance to compete for awards, cash prizes, and business services from sponsors, valued at more than $25,000!

Applications are due by 5:00 pm May 25, 2012 for consideration into
the competition. You can also drop off your application at the Business
Assistance Center. Late applications will not be accepted.

Interested companies can download the PDF application here.

The application for Tech Forth Worth Impact Awards has been made public. This is the third year for the awards. Past winners have included companies from the healthcare, environmental and military support industries. Applications are due February 25th.

Eligible applicants are early-stage businesses in North Texas with an innovative product that will have a significant impact on the environment, community or public health.

Applicants will need to be available to present at Pitch Day on March 30, 2011. Award finalists must be available to attend the IMPACT Awards Luncheon on May 18, 2011.

Three TECH Fort Worth clients have received a total of $905,000 in Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Project grants, which were announced this week by the Internal Revenue Service.
ZS Pharma ($245,000), Resonant Sensors ($435,000), and Omm Scientific ($225,000) will receive money available as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010.

TECH Fort Worth is a not-for-profit business incubator that coaches and mentors early-stage entrepreneurs to accelerate and expand their businesses for greater success in bringing a technology-based product to market.

“This is a great boost for our local economy, as this new money is plowed into getting these products ready for market,” said Darlene Ryan, Executive Director of TECH Fort Worth. “Startup companies spend their dollars on jobs and equipment, all good things for the economy, and in this case it’s a double benefit because the result will be improved healthcare.”
A total of $1 billion was available nationwide for taxpayers working on therapeutic discovery projects that show a reasonable potential to:
• Result in new therapies to treat areas of un-met medical need or prevent, detect or treat chronic or acute diseases and conditions,
• Reduce the long-term growth of health care costs in the U.S., or
• Significantly advance the goal of curing cancer within 30 years.
Qualifying projects were designed:

• To treat or prevent diseases or conditions by conducting pre-clinical activities, clinical trials and clinical studies or carrying out research protocols, for the purpose of securing Food and Drug Administration approval of a product,
• To diagnose diseases or conditions or to determine molecular factors related to diseases or conditions by developing molecular diagnostics to guide therapeutic decisions, or
• To develop a product, process or technology to further the delivery or administration of therapeutics.

ZS Pharma, Inc. is developing products to treat high levels of potassium in the blood, a condition that is life threatening in patients suffering from kidney disease, have suffered some type of renal trauma, or are on medications that increase the level of potassium. The company was founded in 2008 and moved to Fort Worth in 2009, where it has grown to eight employees working on pre-clinical studies and clinical studies in humans.

“The funds are very welcomed as it becomes non-dilutive capital to move the development program forward and support some of the infrastructure required,” said CEO Alvaro Guillem.
ZS Pharma is working with the UNT Health Science Center at Fort Worth to complete pre-clinical and clinical trials of its products, and is an Acceleration client of TECH Fort Worth. During August, ZS Pharma received an award of $2 million from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund (ETF).

Resonant Sensors, Inc. received IRS awards for three different projects: (1) a high-speed desktop device to detect substances in air or liquids that will be used to speed up the development of new drugs by pharmaceutical companies; (2) a portable device that can be used to detect toxins in the air, and (3) a diagnostic tool for early detection of ovarian cancer, one of the deadliest cancers.

The company was formed in Arlington in 2005 and has laboratories at the University of Texas at Arlington and in the TECH Fort Worth Acceleration Lab at the UNT Health Science Center at Fort Worth.

CEO Debra Wawro said: “This money comes on top of direct research funds and will help us hire more people to get these products finished and into the marketplace.”

Omm Scientific’s grant is based upon a collaborative effort with scientists and technology founders at UT Southwestern Medical Center to develop a drug to treat bacterial infections that blocks disease, but does not kill the bacteria that would otherwise lead to resistance.

“The funds will speed the development of such drugs and broaden the activity to more types of bacteria,” said founder Don Stewart. Omm Scientific is a TECH Fort Worth Incubation client.

Here’s the IRS website announcing the grants – look under Texas.

http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=229024,00.html

Here’s the basic FAQ page about the IRS credits and grants:

http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=224011,00.html

Here’s the TECH Fort Worth website:
www.TECHFortWorth.org

ZS Pharma
Al Guillem
386-527-1071
aguillem@zspharma.com.

Resonant Sensors
Debra Wawro
817-300-8297

debra.wawro@resonantsensors.com.

OMM Scientific
Don Stewart (214) 697-2453
dstewart@ommscientific.com

TECH Fort Worth is a nonprofit technology incubator, with offices at the James E. Guinn Complex in Fort Worth South and at the UNT Health Science Center’s Center for BioHealth. Its mission is to grow the local technology-based economy. For more information, go to www.techfortworth.org

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