University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

Published: March 22, 2007

By JOHN DELLACONTRADA
Contributing Editor

Medcotek Inc., a North Carolina medical-technology company, is relocating to UB's New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences as the result of a strategic partnership between Buffalo BioSciences and E-Capital Financing.

Medcotek Inc., a North Carolina medical-technology company, is relocating to UB’s New York State Center for Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences.
PHOTO: DOUGLAS LEVERE

Formed less than a month ago, the Buffalo BioSciences and E-Capital Financing partnership will drive the strategic growth of Medcotek into the global medical imaging and archiving markets, in addition to securing the requisite financing and business infrastructure needs. Medcotek is the first major client signed by the partnership.

Medcotek provides innovative medical software and networking technology solutions. Its expertise and proprietary systems permit low-cost, high-quality, very secure and dynamic medical communications solutions. This technology will permit medical imaging and consults to all parts of the world and increased utilization of disparate medical specialists.

Medcotek and seven employees will move next month from Charlotte to the second floor of the Center of Excellence on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus in downtown Buffalo. The plan is to grow the company to 30-35 science, marketing, sales, technology and administrative employees in 18 months, at which time the company will move to another location in the Buffalo area, according to Medcotek CEO Fredric Zeigler.

Medcotek was attracted to Buffalo because of its desire to join Buffalo Niagara's emerging biotechnology industry and tap into the biomedical computing expertise of UB's Center of Excellence, Zeigler says. The company selected Buffalo over several other cities, including San Diego.

"We're very excited about the potential to grow the company in Buffalo and be a part of a new biotech corridor in the region," Zeigler says. "Relocation here is a strategic move designed to leverage Buffalo's research assets and take advantage of the professional services the region provides to biotech companies looking for new opportunities.

"The region's quality of life, spirit of scientific collaboration and community friendliness also were factors in our decision," he adds.

Medcotek was launched two years ago in Charlotte and currently has hospital clients in the Gulf Coast region and Warsaw, Poland. From its Buffalo location, Medcotek hopes to expand its services to other regions in the United States and Europe as it launches new technologies that give hospitals long-distance access to the expertise of certified radiologists.

The tele-radiology, picture and communications-systems market is estimated to reach nearly $1.1 billion in annual sales this year. The market is projected to grow 14 percent annually as more regions are impacted by a shortage of certified radiologists.

Medcotek is the third biotech business brought to life in Buffalo by Buffalo BioSciences since the company's founding a year ago, notes Eric Cornavaca, partner, Buffalo BioSciences. Creation and recruitment of small biotech companies that can grow in Buffalo Niagara, in collaboration with the region's research institutions, is a fruitful strategy for growing Buffalo's biotech industry, Cornavaca says.

"Medcotek was attracted to Buffalo's intrinsic resource of computing power, its low cost of doing business and the major infrastructure support it offers to start-up biotech companies," Cornavaca says. "We are bringing together all of the ingredients needed to make great scientific businesses."

Michael R. Koeppel, founder of E-Capital Financing, will serve as Medcotek's senior vice president and chief financial officer as the company establishes operations in Buffalo.

"It's very impressive that we were able to bring Medcotek to Buffalo just one month after establishing a joint venture with Buffalo BioSciences," says Koeppel. "Not only have we found an outstanding local client base, but we are attracting out-of-state bioscience and medical technology companies to work with the great and largely untapped asset base of our region."

Buffalo BioSciences' relationship with Medcotek is an example of how the collaborative business-development model within the Center of Excellence and throughout Buffalo Niagara can produce new ventures in the region, says Marnie LaVigne, director of business development at UB's Center for Advanced Biomedical and Bioengineering Technology.

"It's very rewarding to see this biomedical informatics connection come to life in Buffalo," LaVigne says. "The Center of Excellence and its computer science faculty joined our commercialization partner, Buffalo BioSciences, to make Medcotek's decision to set up shop in our region an easy one."

Medcotek will work with prominent UB computer scientist Vipin Chaudhary as it implements and develops technologies to achieve a greater share of the market for digital transmission and remote diagnosis of X-rays and other medical images.

"Working with Medcotek is an exciting opportunity with tremendous market potential," says Chaudhary, an expert in medical imaging. Chaudhary came to UB last fall in an effort to recruit to the Center of Excellence top-notch "entrepreneurial scientists" capable of developing and commercializing new biotechnologies. Chaudhary previously has launched his own businesses and has been on the teams of several successful businesses.