Larta Institute Receives Award for National Institutes of Health Commercialization Assistance Program at 2011 Acquisition, Grants, and Small Business Symposium

LOS ANGELES, May 6, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Last week in Alexandria, VA, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Grants and Acquisition Policy and Accountability (OGAPA) recognized the National Institutes of Health's Commercialization Assistance Program (and its Niche Assessment Program) for a special "team" recognition award for superior efforts to assist over 600 companies in bringing their applications to market and "contributing to public health." The award was made at the 2011 Acquisition, Grants, and Small Business Symposium. CEO Rohit Shukla was present and recognized as part of the team. The two-day symposium also highlighted various aspects of the acquisition, grants, and small business planning process to enrich stakeholder and customer knowledge.

The Larta-managed National Institutes of Health Commercialization Assistance Program (NIH-CAP) has assisted more than 600 NIH-funded SBIR Phase II businesses identify and accomplish their commercialization goals. The NIH-CAP is a 10-month mentoring and partnering-oriented effort geared to accelerate the commercial and market readiness of award-winning life science companies supported by NIH institutes across a variety of health care areas. Since 2004, Larta has assisted 105 NIH-CAP companies raise over $410 million in capital, and has had 12 acquisitions (10 companies and 2 technologies) result from the program. As part of this effort, Larta Institute has developed a compelling innovation "eco system" with industry, domain and functional experts focused on helping to advance these innovative products and services.

One of the many successful past participants in Larta's NIH-CAP is Colorado engineering company, Quest Product Development Corp. Quest participated in the 2008-09 NIH-CAP program cycle, working to continue research into their novel CardioQuest™ Cardiac Synchronization Technology.

CEO of Quest, James Houston, found great benefit from NIH-CAP participation, stating, "NIH-CAP helped us focus on our technology and path to commercialization, as well as pointed out concerns we needed to address and market opportunities we might look at. The work around preparing the road show and strategic action plan, the practice presentations and the panel feedback were extremely valuable."

Larta's commercialization programs are designed to support early stage entrepreneurs and drive entrepreneurship across the nation. In addition to NIH, Larta also partners with the National Science Foundation (NSF), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Department of Energy (DOE).

About Larta Institute

Larta is a professional services firm that helps turn government-funded innovations into enterprises. Our clients range from federal agencies in the U.S. to governments and regional authorities across the globe. We increase the market and investor readiness of emerging entrepreneurs supported by these institutions. Larta has over 17 years of experience designing and managing customized mentoring programs to help innovators reach commercial markets. We credit our proven track record of success to our unrivaled expertise and extensive global network of subject-matter experts, seasoned entrepreneurs, investors, and Fortune 1000 companies. Since 1993, we have assisted hundreds of entrepreneurs to raise over $1.5 billion in capital.

Media Contact:
Rebecca Lauber
Programs and Business Development Associate
[email protected]
213.538.1445
http://www.larta.org/

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SOURCE Larta Institute