For Immediate Release
October 10, 2005

NEW JOBS FOR NEW YORK, JOHNSON & JOHNSON HOST UPSTATE NEW YORK BIOTECH CONFERENCE

Conference connects Upstate New York Biotech Companies with one world’s second-largest biotechnology company

Rochester, NY – Today in Rochester, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton joined with New Jobs for New York, Inc. and Johnson & Johnson to host “Upstate New York Biotech Day,” a meeting of more than 50 Upstate New York business and university researchers at the University or Rochester Medical Center. The meeting sought to build relationships between Upstate New York biotechnology companies and Johnson & Johnson.
“Today’s meeting will help lay the groundwork for possible partnerships between these cutting-edge companies and Johnson & Johnson, “ said Roger C. Altman, Chairman of the Board of Directors of New Jobs for New York, Inc. “It is these types of connections that will grow the biotechnology industry in Upstate New York and ignite job growth throughout the region.”

Upstate New York Biotech day is a direct outcome of a previous New Jobs for New York, Inc. biotechnology conference that was held in Buffalo earlier this year. Several companies that participated in that event were invited to attend today’s event in Rochester.

Today’s meeting, which featured a keynote address by Senator Clinton who serves as Chair of the Advisory Board of New Jobs for New York, Inc., included opening remarks by Roy Davis, company group chairman of Johnson & Johnson, representatives of Johnson & Johnson’s Corporate Office of Science and Technology, and presentations by each of fourteen companies from across Upstate New York and five of the region’s leading universities.

The companies included: Agave Biosystems from Ithaca, Biophan Technologies from W. Henrietta, Breonics, Inc. from Otisville, Egenix from Rochester, Innovative Biotechnologies International, Inc. from Grand Island, Medical Acoustics, LLC from Buffalo, Thermal Gradient, Inc. from Rochester, Gene Network Sciences, Inc. from Ithaca, Infotonics Technology Center from Canandaigua, Litron Laboratories from Rochester, Rondaxe Pharma LLC from Syracuse, Therex LLC from Buffalo, Vaccinex Inc. from Rochester, and Viral Therapeutics, Inc. from Ithaca.

The universities included: Cornell University in Ithaca, the New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences in Buffalo, the Roswell Park Cancer Institute also in Buffalo, the Research Foundation of the State University of New York, and University of Rochester Medical Center.