Caliper Seeks Mass Life Sciences Center Help
Susan Windham-Bannister tours Caliper with Bruce J. Bal, senior vice president of operations.
Meeting with staff from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center Thursday, the president and CEO of Hopkinton's Caliper Life Sciences Inc. said Caliper could serve as a model of a financially constrained company that fulfills an ambitious vision faster and better with the help of the state agency.
Kevin Hrusovsky discussed a variety of initiatives that the company, which makes tools for biotech research, wants to move forward. The company's revenues grew 67 percent between 2004 and 2008, but it hasn't turned a profit, and tight credit markets make its situation more precarious.
"We're on a razor's edge," Hrusovsky said.
The company is seeking help from the Life Sciences Center to underwrite its R&D programs, perhaps by taking an equity position in the company. Hrusovsky said Caliper has 700 patents, including many that it brought to Massachusetts from California by acquiring other technology companies.
Susan Windham-Bannister, president and CEO of the center, said it is possible it could buy equity in a company, but it has not tried that tactic yet. Luis Barros, the center's senior vice president of industry relations, invited the company to apply for R&D funding from the center's 2010 budget.
Hrusovsky also suggested that the center play a role in creating a "MetroWest Incubator Facility" at the company's headquarters. He said 40,000 square feet of space is available. One business, pharmaceutical testing company Sotax, is already using space there.
Hrusovsky said one of Caliper's most exciting recent developments is a system that allows for purity testing of biological products, as well as comparisons to see if products created by different methods are identical. He said collaboration with the center could allow Massachusetts companies and institutions to buy the new technology at a discount while helping Caliper to sell it more effectively.
"We're probably underfunding it right now," Hrusovsky said.
Windham-Bannister said she was impressed by Caliper's presentation and hopes to meet more with company officials, perhaps together with other life sciences executives, to further consider the proposals.
"Let's treat this as just the kick-off conversation," she said.
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