Which biopharm firms got a head start by winning JumpStart?

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Sherin S. Abdel-Meguid, president of Shifa Biomedical, one of two area companies to win JumpStart grants.

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John George

Senior Reporter- Philadelphia Business Journal

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Two suburban Philadelphia life sciences companies will be getting free business development and consulting services after being selected as the winners of JumpStart, a contest for early-stage Pennsylvania biotechnology and pharmacy firms.

Forge Life Sciences and Shifa BioMedical will receive consulting services valued at $50,000 each from contest sponsors PharmaDirections and New Perspectives.

Forge Life Sciences is working on stemming the problem of the r educed effectiveness of antibiotics. The company is based in the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center of Bucks County and its founder and CEO is Lillian Chiang.

Shifa BioMedical in Malvern, Pa. is a structure-based drug discovery company working on drugs to treat cancer and cardiovascular diseases. It's also developing vaccine technology. Sherin S. Abdel-Meguid is the company's president.

"We help early-stage companies, mainly small and virtual companies, that have identified a lead compound go through the preclinical development stage and into clinical testing," said John Morrison, vice president for business development at PharmaDirections.

PharmaDirections will assist companies with devising product development plans that include timelines, cost projections and regulatory strategies.

New Perspectives, Morrison noted, helps young companies devise a commercialization strategy by conducting market and reimbursement assessments for potential new products.

"A lot of companies we work with are coming out of the gate with a lead product and need to go out and raise money, typically $2 million to $5 million." Morrison said. " Our idea with [the JumpStart contest] was to give two companies a leg up on that process by providing them with solid development and commercialization plans that show [investors] how they are going to spend that money."

John George covers health care, biotech/pharmaceuticals and sports business.