Renold Capocasale, founder and CEO of Doylestown's FlowMetric was in London this week with Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter to extol the virtues of the region as an ideal location for overseas companies.
For Capocasale, it was also a chance to attract potential partners, investors and clients for his company, a contract research organization that works with pharmaceutical and biotech firms, research institutions and medical facilities on development of drugs and therapeutics.
“We have the know-how to help no-go or go decision making as early as pre-clinical drug discovery all the way through the clinical trial process,” says Capocasale.
He founded the company in 2010 after working for 16 years in drug development for Johnson & Johnson. When he was caught up in a gigantic round of layoffs, he seized “the chance to do something proactive rather than reactive.”
Since then, he says, the company has doubled its revenues every year. So when Pennsylvania Bio – about which Capocasale offers kudos – made him aware of the trade mission, he was gung ho. “We believe strongly in the region as a center for growth in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics),” he says.
In September, FlowMetric opened an office in Milan, Italy in order to work more effectively with European Union and American companies doing clinical trials overseas. And Capocasale is in the process of incorporating a spin-off, FlowMetric Diagnostics, to take advantage of a $100 million market.
FlowMetric currently employs seven in at its headquarters at the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center of Bucks County and Capocasale expects to hire two more by the end of the year, with more hiring in the first quarter of 2014. With the new company, he anticipates “lots of job creation” by the end of 2014.
Source: Renold Capocasale, FlowMetric
Writer: Elise Vider