Bellbrook Labs | Biology at Work

Biology at Work

For immediate release
April 16, 2005

BellBrook targets biotech need

Andrew Wallmeyer Wisconsin State Journal
Saturday April 16, 2005

BellBrook Labs has its roots - and plans for growth - firmly planted in Madison's biotech community.

Over the last three months, the small biotech firm took its first product to market, lined up supply pacts with a handful of large pharmaceutical companies, moved into a new office and landed $1.5 million in private equity - the rough equivalent of its total operating budget since it was founded in late 2002.

The company hopes to break even in the second quarter of 2006 and have annual revenue of $16 million by 2009.

That, of course, is all part of the plan.

" We started less the way a scientist would and more the way a sales and marketing person would," said Bob Lowery, BellBrook Labs president and co-founder.

" A lot of times, companies like ours are driven by their technology; they have a technology and they go looking for a market for it," he said. "We started by asking, 'What's a significant market need?' and then, 'How can we develop the technology to fill that need?'"

The need BellBrook Labs identified was for high-volume screening of possible drug targets. The idea was to speed up the process drug companies use to determine where to focus their research, saving them time and money.

BellBrook's focus on the research tools market is already familiar to the Madison biotech community through the efforts of Promega Corp., the former PanVera Corp., or any of a handful of other Madison firms that have positioned themselves in that niche.

Lowery learned much of what he knows about the high- throughput screening market as vice president of research and development at PanVera, which was purchased by Aurora Biosciences Corp. of San Diego for about $86 million in 2000 and is now part of publicly traded Invitrogen Corp. of Carlsbad, Calif.

When looking for a co- founder, Lowery contacted John Majer, who worked with him at Promega. That set a precedent of hiring known quantities from other local companies the two have followed to this day.

" We ask 'What do we want?' and then we ask, 'Who's the perfect person for that?' " Lowery said.

Lowery and Majer said choosing largely from people they have worked with in the past limits the risk of a hire not panning out, which would have serious consequences for their relatively small operation.

" So far, we've snagged everyone we've gone after," Majer said. "We've got a great team."

That team now consists of eight people - each received a stake in BellBrook Labs when they were hired - and the company plans to take on another four within the year.

When it came time to look for investors, Lowery and Majer again stayed close to home. The majority of the dozen or so people who contributed the $1.5 million that will keep BellBrook running until it turns a profit are from Wisconsin, with the remainder coming from Lowery's connections in his home state of California.

One of BellBrook's local investors is Quintessence BioSciences president and chief executive Ralph Kauten, who got to know Lowery when Lowery worked under him at PanVera.

While Kauten believes BellBrook's technology and know- how make it a good investment, he said personal connections and his desire to see another local biotech firm succeed were also factors in his decision to invest in the company.

" Part of it is a reinvestment in those people," Kauten said. "Those people have helped me, and I'm to some extent paying them back."

Wisconsin Investment Partners manager Terry Sivesind said above and beyond the company's local roots, BellBrook Labs is an attractive investment because of its relatively low risk.

" The best thing about them is the speed to market," he said. "They've got products being field tested right now by potential customers. If those field tests go well, they'll be selling product in the next few months."

While Wisconsin Investment Partners, an angel investing group, didn't invest in the company, Sivesind said "it wasn't because of lack of interest, but it was because they had enough interest already."

Contact Andrew Wallmeyer at awallmeyer@madison.com or 252-6123

Screening Simplified. Drug Discovery Multiplied.