About InfraTrac
| Founders Advisory Board Team Recent Publications NewsJune 12, 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 28, 2008
InvestorsSaffron Hill Ventures is a London-based early-stage venture capital firm. Several of Saffron Hill’s other portfolio companies also link software and health. InfraTrac has received an MTTF award from the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) for developing formulation software. |
InfraTrac is a venture-backed start-up company, founded to provide a new way to track and detect counterfeit drugs. Better than RFID and EPC, InfraTrac actually tags and tracks the drug itself, making it impossible for the counterfeiter to escape undetected.
InfraTrac’s principal competition comes from physical tags (RFID and EPC) and special inks. Competition may also come from proprietary techniques under development at affected pharmaceutical companies. However, InfraTrac’s patent protection (priority 2003) is expected to cover those techniques.
InfraTrac applications go beyond pharmaceuticals, to any product that needs tracking and anti-counterfeiting measures. Gasoline, plastics, fabrics, even paint can use InfraTrac’s technology, so you can tell the fakes from the real thing.
Founders
InfraTrac was founded by Sharon Flank, Ph.D., who specializes in the commercialization of complex technologies. She is joined by inventors Stephen Hoag, Ph.D. and James Polli, Ph.D., and backed by Saffron Hill Ventures.
Dr. Sharon Flank founded InfraTrac in March, 2006. Her management expertise reaches back to 1981, managing scientists, academics and software engineers. She has managed delivery of products and services to large and small customers, including Discovery Communications, McDonald’s, Bechtel, and the U.S. Government. As ChiefTechnology Officer of eMotion, Inc., she turned around a team of 44 developers and guided them to their first of many on-time software releases for an internet-based commercial product. She was also responsible for the technical side of sales, and closed new customers including BBC and Conservation International.
Dr. Stephen W. Hoag is a tenured associate professor at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy. He has written dozens of papers and holds several patents in pharmacy science, focusing on formulation. He has been working with near-infrared spectroscopy for several years. Research areas include (1) sustained release tablet formulation, dissolution testing, mathematical modeling of tablet compaction, design of tablet machine instrumentation, PC-based data acquisition systems, computer-aided manufacture and formulation and testing of nutritional supplements. (2) Use of mass transport theories to mathematically model calcium alginate gel formation and diffusion of bioactive molecules from alginate gels. (3) Prenatal vitamin formulation. (4) Thermal analysis of polymers used in film coating.
Dr. James E. Polli is Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy. He received a B.S. in Pharmacy from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science and a Ph.D. (pharmaceutics) from the University of Michigan. Dr. Polli’s research interest revolves around the performance and pharmaceutical quality of orally administered medicines. His two main research interests are maximizing oral bioavailability developing public quality standards for oral dosage forms. He has published in the areas of dissolution and formulation, drug intestinal permeability, oral bioavailability, in vitro - in vivo correlation, and bioequivalence. He serves as AAPS PDD Chair-Elect, Co-Chair of the FIP BCS Working Group, and member of the WHO Special Interest Group on BA/BE and the USP Expert Committee on Biopharmaceutics. He is an Editorial Board member of Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Molecular Pharmaceutics, Pharmaceutical Research, European Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, AAPS PharmSci, and Pharmaceutical Technology. Dr. Polli has received the AAPS New Investigator Award in Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Technology. He is a licensed pharmacist and teaches professional pharmacy students and graduate students.
Advisory Board
Emil Ciurczak in an expert on the use of NIR in pharma, with over 30 years of pharmaceutical experience at companies such as Sandoz, Ciba-Geigy, Merck, and Purdue. He lectures frequently and provides training courses on NIR techniques and applications. He literally wrote the book on the topic, with the third edition published in 2007. He holds multiple patents in spectroscopy.
Donna Romer recently was COO of Celartem Technology and CEO of Celartem USA. She has 20-plus years of experience in executive leadership, beginning at Kodak. She founded Romer + Associates, a successful M&A practice, where she provided deal leadership, channel expansion and company integration services. Prior to that, she worked in the venture capital community as Entrepreneur-in-Residence for EastWest VentureGroup, a California VC with focus on the rich media and internet infrastructure space. She also holds several patents.
Team
Dr. William H. Flank, InfraTrac’s senior scientist (and the founder’s father), brings the experience of a 30-year industrial research career in chemistry, at Quantachrome Instruments, Union Carbide, and Houdry (Air Products & Chemicals). He has served as Chair of the Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Division of the American Chemical Society (twice), and Fellow of ASTM and Award of Merit recipient in recognition of his standards development activities. In addition to his scientific expertise, Dr. Flank brings to InfraTrac a wealth of organizational and management skills, with a strong background in governance processes, strategic planning, organizational and program assessment, personnel evaluation, legal and technical liaison, and inter-agency coordination. He designed and currently teaches courses in research design, statistical analysis and sampling for real-world environmental evaluation and monitoring activities. He has edited three books, and authored over 50 patents and technical papers, primarily on catalysis and molecular sieves. He was accepted as a Fulbright Senior Specialist candidate for a five-year term in 2004.
Dr. Howard Mark, of Mark Electronics, consults with InfraTrac on NIR. The founder of The Near Infrared Research Corporation and the winner of the EAS award for Achievement in Near Infrared Spectroscopy for 2003, Dr. Mark has worked with NIR since 1976 when he joined Technicon Instrument Corp. In the R&D department, Dr. Mark implemented many "firsts" for NIR. He created the first universal calibration, performed the first application of NIR to many industries, designed the first extended-range filter instruments and internal-reference double-beam monochromator instruments, created the first qualitative analysis software for NIR. He designed, developed, modified and optimized the instruments and associated software and ensured that the instruments performed their functions to the level needed to satisfy the user requirements. In the Applications department, he worked with customers in the chemical and other industries to install, implement, calibrate the instruments and ensure that the entire installation met the customer's needs. He is now an independent consultant for NIR, helping instrument developers (both start-ups and established companies) and users (pharmaceutical, medical devices and other companies) get the most out of NIR. Dr. Mark also teaches NIR courses in Amsterdam and New Brunswick under the auspices of the Center for Professional Advancement, and also privately.
Recent Publications
Tabasi A., Polli, J.E., and Hoag, S.W. (2005): Application of Near Infrared Spectroscopy to Differentiate Counterfeit and Authentic Drug Products. AAPSPharmSci 7(suppl.):online.
Polli, J.E. and Hoag, S.W. (2004): Near-Infrared Technology Detects Counterfeit Drugs. US Pharmacist Feb:104-6.
Polli, J.E., Schoneker, D.R., and Hoag, S.W. (2005): Counterfeit Drug Producers: Problems and Solutions. AAPS Newsletter July: 20-22.