Springdale has Biotech Superman

Biotechnology in Northwest Arkansas has a hero. Springdale native Kevin Clark pushes the industry forward, professionally and personally, striving to develop a formidable asset for the state.

Clark serves as chief operating officer of Springdale’s ImmunoVision Inc., a subsidiary of Ivax Diagnostics Inc. Within the first six months of 2001, Ivax Diagnostics will complete a merger with publicly traded b2bstores.com, a failing e-commerce company that sold business supplies.

Now ImmunoVision prepares to go public, and the newly formed company will trade under an as-yet-unnamed symbol.

The pending sale marks another key point of Clark’s career with ImmunoVision.

Clark first delved into the business of biotechnology in 1987 when Dynamic Enterprises in Rogers owned ImmunoVision Inc., then a small and sputtering start-up diagnostic lab. After dumping about $370,000 into the company, the owners, Bill and Jeannie Fleeman, watched ImmunoVision slide toward bankruptcy until they charged Clark with saving the business.

After working at the white lab tables of ImmunoVision for one year, Clark got his chance. He said the Fleemans gave him 25 percent of the company and a mounting pile of debt to see what he could do.

At the time, Clark was pursuing a master’s degree in immunology at the University of Arkansas. Lacking only three hours to graduate, Clark quit school to accept the ImmunoVision offer.

Within six months, Clark had paid off the debt, and eight years later, he and the Fleemans sold the company to publicly traded Ivax Corp., the owner of Ivax Diagnostics, for $2.78 million. Trading on the American Stock Exchange under the symbol IVX.

ImmunoVision, settled in a 5,700-SF building in Springdale and grossed $1.8 million for 2000, Clark said. ImmunoVision’s gross sales typically increase 7-10 percent annually.

Ivax Corp. grossed $287.1 million in 1999.

Now, using cow spleens and rabbit thymus glands, ImmunoVision manufactures tests for autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis. The raw tests supply Diamedix Corp. of Miami, which assembles and distributes most of the diagnostic test kits.

Delta Biologicals in Italy produces automated equipment to administer the tests. All three companies are owned by Ivax Diagnostics, which is heading for the stock market.

The b2bstores.com Web site shut down in November when a merger became imminent. Occasionally spiking as high as $18.37 since its start up in June 1999, b2bstores.com’s stock pitched, eventually to close at $1.66 on Jan. 2.

Originally, Clark signed a five-year management contract upon selling ImmunoVision to Ivax, but the contract “Golden handcuffs” of stock options kept Clark close after the agreement expired, but he said his belief in the concept would have made him stick with the company, anyway.

A Life’s Work

Clark’s dedication to developing biotechnology in Arkansas beams past the perks and pitfalls of his career. He is so involved that he has saturated his life with the business and science of the laboratory.

Now 37, Clark is a partner and researcher in the fledgling biotechnology company Cogs LLC.

“With Cogs, we’re hoping to develop diagnostics for breast and ovarian cancer,” Clark said. “If you can diagnose that two stages earlier, it’s worth it. I believe we can do a lot of good for a lot of people.”

Cogs director Howard Davis agreed. “The potential is just unbelievable,” he said. “It could be one of the biggest things to hit Northwest Arkansas.”

Researchers at Cogs are studying to develop a kit to diagnose breast and ovarian cancer when it’s only two or three cells. Self-examinations and mammograms help identify breast cancer when a lump is detected — three to five years after the cancer has begun, Davis said.

“The life-saving potential is mindboggling,” Davis said.

Every 11 minutes, a woman dies of breast or ovarian cancer, Davis said. “That’s scary. I have two daughters, a wife and a mother,” he said. “This could easily affect one of them.”

Davis, who works by day as a Springdale certified public accountant, said the kits could be available in Europe within the next 6-18 months. Selling the presurgical kits for only $2-$3, the sales could be astounding.

“Ninety million dollars to $200 million in [annual] sales is conservative if this thing flies,” Davis said.

Slimming funds pose a problem for Cogs, though. The largest start-up grant expired Dec. 31, and Davis said the team had begun searching for funding.

Arkansas Bioventures, a biotechnology business incubator at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, houses Cogs. Patents involving nine gene markers that could help diagnose breast and ovarian cancer are the main project at Cogs. Research and clinical trials submerse the 14 pending patents, and, if they are granted, Cogs will have manufacturing and distribution rights to the research.

Scientific discoveries led to the patents, stemming from the work of Cogs’ chief scientist at UAMS, Timothy O’Brien, director of the school’s Biomedical Biotechnology Center and a professor of obstetrics and gynecology, biochemistry and molecular biology.

If the patents are granted, Cogs could then outsource the diagnostic test manufacturing to a company such as ImmunoVision. Any money made would finance Cogs, with royalties filtering to UAMS, said Charles Cook, a licensing associate at UAMS.

To launch Cogs in November 1999, grants topping $246,000 filtered into the effort, including $66,000 from the Arkansas Science and Technology Authority and $147,000 from the National Institutes of Health. Clark contributed $33,300 to the company’s genesis.

After selling his portion of ImmunoVision in 1995 for an undisclosed amount, Clark contributed some of the profits to finance the Cogs business plan.

All Before Suppertime

Rounding out his biotechnology career, Clark was also elected this year’s president of the Arkansas Biotechnology Association, which is trying to bring emphasis to Arkansas biotechnology academics and industry.

Sponsoring science fairs around the state and working for legislation, the association formed a network of contacts to help bring more biotechnical involvement into Arkansas.

Fees from the memberships finance the organization. Corporate annual dues are $400; individuals pay $50, and students join for $25.

To help keep the Arkansas biotech ball rolling on the local level, Clark said he tries to hire students from the university to fill positions as they open.

Each available job usually receives 200-300 interested candidates from Arkansas schools, Clark said.

Opportunity in the industry continues to open new doors for Clark, who also was recently selected to serve on U.S. Sen. Tim Hutchinson’s Arkansas biotechnology advisory board.

In September, Hutchinson, R-Ark., announced the formation of a Senate biotechnology caucus, and Clark was one of the first invited to join the group of 15-20 informal advisers.

Official invitations to join the board won’t be mailed until February, said Michael Zehr, a legislative correspondent for Hutchinson, but Clark was chosen for the board because he offers a local industry perspective.

“We want to make sure that whatever happens [in Washington] will affect the industry [in Arkansas] positively,” Zehr said.