Three startups from Wilmington have been invited to strut their stuff at the Durham-based Council for Entrepreneurial Development‘s (CED) Life Science Conference, held March 3-4 in Raleigh. CED officials made the announcement Wednesday in a news release.
 
The three are Ocis Biotechnology, which is working with University of North Carolina Wilmington’s MARBIONC Center to commercialize therapeutic products made from marine chemical ingredients; GO2, a company that produces and sells a treadle machine designed to improve users’ blood flow; and OrthoMend, the maker of biodegradable surgical “smart screws” and plates that the company says dissolve naturally in the body, can deliver medication to the affected area and are as strong as titanium.
 
Joseph Connell, the CEO of OrthoMend, is looking forward to the exposure his patent-pending technology will get at the conference. Since obtaining a start-up license last spring from Drexel University, where the technology was developed, Connell said he has been working “under the radar” to get the technology patented and prepare to pitch his company to investors. The conference is his first opportunity to tell his story to people who can potentially move OrthoMend forward.
 
“I hope to get some help,” he said Thursday. “I need financial investors and angels and help from the state.”
 
OrthoMend, GO2, Ocis and 47 other startups from around the state were invited to demonstrate their ideas and wares at the conference because CED officials believe they will play a major role in health care innovation in the next 10 years.
 
The conference will spotlight the “latest developments and trends in patient advocacy, personalized medicine, digital health, and venture funding and their transformative effect on the life science landscape over the next decade,” the release stated, adding that the two-day event is expected to draw almost 1,000 industry, research, investor and business organizations.
 
Also featured at the event, according to the release, will be Herb Boyer, co-founder of Genentech; John Lechleiter, CEO, president and chairman of Eli Lilly & Co.; and Dennis Gillings, founder and executive chairman of Quintiles.  Several high-profile investors will also attend and speak at the event.
 
“This year’s roster of companies and speakers are the scientists, innovators and visionaries who are using science and technology to make our lives better – and change the world,” Joan Siefert Rose, president of CED, said in the release. “They are transforming every aspect of our lives, from how we interact with our health care providers, to making treatments less invasive, to designing and refining the technology that improves and extends our lives. These leaders are proof that North Carolina is on the cutting edge of the next 10 years of innovation in the life science industry.”

The conference is presented in partnership with the North Carolina Biotechnology Center and NCBIO, the trade association for North Carolina’s biosciences industry.

Two Wilmington startups were showcased and three others demonstrated at the CED's Tech Venture conference in September 2014, the first time that area companies had been invited to participate in the event.