Innova Inc. reveiwing investment opportunities

Company also hires its second employee

The Commercial Appeal
February 5, 2008
By Daniel Connolly

Innova Inc., a new firm looking to invest in startup companies in the sciences, could be making its first deals very soon.

Ken Woody, who in November became Innova's president, said the investment fund has heard presentations from 37 fledgling companies and is doing extensive reviews of five of them.

"We will definitely do two (investments) within the next two months and could do up to five," he said. The investments could range from $50,000 to $600,000, he said.

In November, Woody had said Innova had planned to make only two investments in its first year, but said Monday that the fund is keeping options open because many opportunities look strong.

Though some proposed companies could take years to mature, others could earn revenue within two to three months, he said.

Innova is a subsidiary of the Memphis Bioworks Foundation, a nonprofit that backs science-based businesses. Innova's goal is to support companies at the very earliest stages, helping create high-paying jobs.

It's slated to receive $11.5 million in public and private money over five years from the Memphis Fast Forward economic development plan. Woody said he also wants to assemble a group of wealthy "angel investors" to participate.

Innova remains small and very new. Woody said its board of directors is meeting for the first time next week. And the firm announced Monday that it's hired its second employee, Preston H. Dorsett.

Woody said he believes Dorsett's pharmaceutical background will help Innova evaluate proposals from would-be drug companies. Woody's expertise is in medical devices and medical equipment.

Dorsett, 65, is a virus scientist who in 1982 worked with partners to turn research at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center into a company called Viral Antigens Inc. The firm cooperated with New Jersey-based Becton, Dickinson and Co. to make tests for rubella, the virus that causes German measles.

Viral Antigens expanded its product line and grew, Dorsett said. He said that in 2000, he and business partners sold the company for $9.6 million, plus additional payments for six years.

He retired last year from the successor firm, Meridian Life Science Inc., but decided to look for a new opportunity. He'll be with Innova on a part-time basis.

Dorsett said he hopes his experience can help scientists turn research breakthroughs into business successes. He said that in the early stages of his business, he and his partners had little guidance and didn't anticipate the problems they would face.

"We just had to stumble along on our own," he said.

-- Daniel Connolly: 529-5296