HemoShear Wins a National 2014 Tibbetts SBIR Award from the Small Business Administration

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., June 18, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- HemoShear, the human disease biology company, has received the prestigious Tibbetts Award, recognizing it as a "Model of Excellence" for the U.S. government's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program. Over 15,000 companies have received $21 billion of research funding through the SBIR program. Of these companies, only a very small number are chosen as exemplars of the SBIR's mission. Awarded to only 25 companies in 2014, the Tibbetts Award places HemoShear in an elite group of accomplished companies that are driving innovation and stimulating economic growth.

The national Tibbetts Awards are presented annually to companies and individuals that promote the mission and goals of the SBIR program. These awards are selected by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) based on recommendations of a panel of judges who carefully consider a company's technological contributions and its ability to address the nation's needs for technological innovation.

At the awards ceremony in Washington DC, Mr. Javier Saade, Associate Administrator for the SBA's Office of Investment and Innovation, and former investor and entrepreneur, applauded the recipients as being "the cream of the crop" and heralded them as leading the nation in technology innovation and economic development.

HemoShear was recognized for its leadership in changing the way drugs are discovered and developed, departing from traditional scientific methods and animal studies in favor of translational tissue systems that more accurately replicate human response. HemoShear has received more than $8 million in SBIR funding across several NIH institutes. "Through the SBIR mechanism, the National Institutes of Health has been instrumental in our ability to create new jobs and to commercialize innovative human disease translational tissue systems," remarked Brian Wamhoff, PhD and VP for Research and Development at HemoShear. "We have been funded by four NIH institutes to create or validate human disease tissue systems for drug discovery, including vascular, liver, cancer and rare diseases, a true testament to the breadth and quality of HemoShear's science and our outstanding scientists."

HemoShear advisor, Dr. Robert Ruffolo, Jr., former President of Research and Development for Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, congratulated the Company for garnering recognition by the SBA. "I've worked with HemoShear since its early days and continue to be impressed with the development of its science and the growth of their collaborations with the pharmaceutical industry. The Tibbetts Award is a wonderful acknowledgment of HemoShear's stellar science and its leadership team."

CEO James Powers, who accepted the award on HemoShear's behalf, commented that, "The Tibbetts Award recognizes the growing value of HemoShear's human disease biology platform. We are extremely proud to have received the Tibbetts Award and to join the ranks of many prior awardees who have achieved commercial success."

Read the SBA press release here.

About the Tibbetts Award
The Tibbetts Awards, named after Roland Tibbetts who was instrumental in developing the SBIR program, are presented to those small businesses and individuals judged to exemplify the best in the SBIR program. The award is presented to companies and individuals that promote the mission and goals of the SBIR program and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR):

• to stimulate technological innovation;
• to use small business to meet federal research and development needs;
• to encourage diverse participation in technological innovation; and
• to increase commercialization of Federal research.

About HemoShear
HemoShear, the human disease biology company, is changing the way drugs are discovered and developed in a broad range of therapeutic areas, departing from traditional scientific methods and animal studies in favor of translational tissue systems that more accurately replicate human response. We work in strategic collaboration with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies spanning discovery through clinical applications to uncover new targets, elucidate previously unknown mechanisms, identify novel attributes of drugs and select candidates with superior efficacy and safety profiles. Our proprietary platform integrates patented first-in-class human disease systems with advanced discovery and predictive BioAnalytics and interdisciplinary scientific expertise, providing a unique and powerful lens to interpret biological mechanisms and human disease. Through our pioneering science, HemoShear's mission is to profoundly impact human health. THINK HUMAN. 

Media Contact:
Lynn Blenkhorn
Feinstein Kean Healthcare
P 617 761 6766
M 508 851 0930
[email protected]

SOURCE HemoShear