Money, that’s what I want," is a line from an old Beatles song. But it also is appropriate for the wants of the fledgling businesses on which San Diego has become so dependent.
    The best sources these days of that early investment cash — with a healthy dose of real world experience and management expertise tossed in — is the venture capital community. Sometimes, those money managers even outdo themselves, with success stories that go beyond the norm.
    On Jan. 27, the robust San Diego Venture Group will gather to present its fifth annual Venture Capital Success Story award. For attendance information, contact the group at (619) 272-1985. The winner will be announced that day. Following are profiles of the 10 finalists.

    Striving to bring top-notch customer service to the $1.2 trillion health care industry is 1-800 Call Doc Physicians Who Make Housecalls. This company, headed by CEO Hank Fanelli, was in-spired by patient complaints of difficulty of access, long uncomfortable time spent in waiting rooms, reduced compassion by providers and soaring costs.
    For an average cost of less than $200, a board certified Call Doc physician will visit a patient at home and bring along the ability to take and develop X-rays in minutes, perform 19 blood tests with two drops of blood (and see test results in two minutes), measure the cardiac output of a patient, suture wounds and perform a host of other treatments. Call Doc says its $200 house call could replace 80 percent of the 100 million annual emergency room visits which cost an average of $1,500.
    In addition, the company also markets its services to homebound elderly patients. About two million such individuals find it difficult or impossible to get to a doctor's office. Often, they wait until their condition becomes so acute that they require treatment at an emergency room followed by admission to a hospital.
    1-800 Call Doc was founded by Dr. Gresham Bayne and is funded by Enterprise Partners and BankAmerica Ventures.

    Captiva Software Corp. is an e-business company that focuses on capturing and managing documents. Its flagship product, FormWare, combines state-of-the-art scanning, form and document identification, image processing and recognition technologies with proven high-speed reject repair, key-from-image, key verification and data validation routines.
    The company’s products can handle increased amounts of work and work with third party products. FormWare is designed to serve difficult capture needs in a high-volume, multiuser environment processing from several thousand to hundreds of thousands of forms and documents each day.
    Captiva also offers Genesis, a complete, entry-level capture software product based on the FormWare technology. It’s designed for both forms processing and document capture applications.
    ClaimPack is Captiva's scalable medical claim module based on the FormWare technology. This module automatically reads, analyzes, corrects and validates forms and exports the information into workflow, document and database management systems.
    Captiva Software Corp. was created through the merger of FormWare Corp. and Wheb Systems Inc. The company is headquartered in San Diego. Click on www.captivacorp.com for more.

    CFY Biomedicals Inc. is an emerging biotech with the life-altering mission of developing protein-based drugs for both the treatment and prevention of the common cold. CFY's flagship product, ColdSol nasal spray, could provide a solution for the common cold by preventing cold viruses from infecting human cells. In June, the company completed its seed venture capital financing led by Sorrento Ventures.
    ColdSol has evolved from years of research by many scientists in pursuit of common cold prevention. It was created by combining concepts previously tested in clinical studies with the recent breakthroughs in protein engineering technology. Since the scientific principles behind this product have been proven, CFY plans to accelerate its product development and clinical trial time lines.
    Dr. Mang Yu, founder and executive vice president of CFY Biomedicals Inc., was previously the scientific co-founder of Immusol and had managed its $50 million antiviral drug development program. Dr. Fang Fang serves as the company’s scientific and medical director and scientific founder, and is the inventor of ColdSol.
    Vince Burgess, vice president of Sorrento Associates and general partner of Sorrento Ventures, is the company’s chairman. Tina S. Nova, formerly president and COO of Nanogen, is an exclusive consultant to the company. The founding chairman of CFY's scientific advisory board is Richard Lerner, president of the Scripps Research Institute.

    DNA Dynamics Inc. is a genetic resources company creating, consolidating and distributing genetic products and services to professionals and consumers. The company’s first product, DNA I.D., was the first commercialized DNA identity test meeting the "gold standard" established by the FBI in 1998.
    The DNA sample is collected using a simple cheek swab and analyzed by DNA Dynamics' lab according to the same standards used by the FBI and United States armed forces. The genetic profile is unique to one individual out of more than 10 trillion with 99.999 percent accuracy. The information is recorded on a Certificate of DNA Analysis and stored in the DNA Dynamics' database. DNA I.D. carries no clinical information.
    DNA I.D. is being marketed as the ultimate in individual identification, especially for children under 7 years who lack traditional forms of identification such as fingerprints, dental record, and photos, as these can continue to change as children develop. DNA I.D. also can establish family relationships such as paternity, maternity, and twin zygosity, and is therefore helpful to the legal community in cases of child custody, inheritance disputes and adoption.
    Another product, DNA M.D., is a combination of advanced genetic tests, products, counseling, and education for primary and specialty physicians and their patients. DNA Dynamics also is pioneering the use of Webcasting to create online interaction between physicians, patients and genetics professionals. For more, click on www.dnaMD.com.

    Ixsys is a leader in applying directed evolution technologies to the field of therapeutics. Directed evolution is the process of subjecting DNA, which encodes for a molecule, to a rapid evolutionary process in the test tube, the result of which is to make the molecule work better by improving its useful functions.
    Ixsys holds the enabling patents for the entire field of directed evolution and has developed a technology centered around the Kauffman and Codon-Based Mutagenesis patents invented by the founder of Ixsys.
    Products being developed by Ixsys are designed to address critical diseases such as cancer, organ transplant rejection and substance abuse. Among them are the following:

• Vitaxin, an anti-angiogenic antibody that attacks tumors by cutting off their blood supply. It is in Phase II clinical trials.
• A molecule to treat graft versus host disease caused by organ transplant rejection. It is now in preclinical trials.
• A catalyst to break down cocaine in vivo for the treatment of acute cocaine overdose and the management of chronic cocaine addiction.

The Ixsys management team includes (from left) Jeffry D. Watkins, v.p. of research; Cheryl C. Gabele, director of finance; Lawrence E. Bloch, v.p. of business; and William D. Huse, CEO.

    The market opportunities for Ixsys' products encompass everything that can be made by engineering molecules optimized for specific, desired characteristics. Effective this month, the company has changed its name to Applied Molecular Evolution to reflect its strategy of expanding target markets to include:

• Therapeutics and diagnostics (human and veterinary pharmaceuticals and clinical testing).
• Enhanced plant input and output traits (agribusiness).
• Catalysts and enzymes (commodity and specialty chemicals and environmental bioremediation).
• Nanotechnology (nanomachines/motors and biologic computers).

    Thanks to innovations in fixed wireless technology, people everywhere in the near future may have access to fiber-capacity speeds for Internet surfing, telecommuting and communicating. Broadband wireless access, as the technology is called, combines the benefits of wireless with the high speeds of fiber optics. With the introduction of its fiberless system, Ensemble Communications Inc. enters the market.
    Fiberless is a combination of hardware and software that creates a combination of modem, networking and wireless technology. Powered by Adaptix airlink technology, the fiberless system is the first in the industry to adapt in real time to the instantaneous bandwidth needs of users. The result is efficiency for carriers allowing them to offer their users services such as voice-over Internet, virtual private networks and bandwidth-on-demand.
    The company’s ability to provide equipment in multiple frequencies appeals to carriers that have multiple licenses. Besides addressing multiple frequency allocations, traffic types and operating environments, it supports services from POTS (plain old telephone service) to high-speed data and Internet access. Ensemble is marketing to carriers in the United States, Canada and Europe, and has started field trials with sales beginning in 2000.
    The company plans to sell directly to service providers and through third-party original equipment manufacturing partners. Late last month it closed an additional $2.5 million in venture funding.
    Ensemble was the idea of four inventor-entrepreneurs, Rami Hadar, Sheldon Gilbert, Jay Klein and David Lyon. They started the company in 1997 and it has grown to more than 70 employees at its headquarters in San Diego and R&D facility in Tel Aviv. Its Web site is www.EnsembleCom.com.

    Nereus Pharmaceuticals was formed to utilize two technologies that could provide an uninterrupted pipeline of near-term drug candidates. The first, NPI-1302a, Nereus' proprietary anti-inflammatory, a small molecule, synthetic drug candidate, targets TNF-a synthesis, a key intermediate in serious inflammatory and cardiovascular diseases.
    Nereus' second key asset is drug discovery from highly diverse chemical libraries produced by marine microorganisms combined with gene targeted screening. Despite the importance of soil microorganisms for drug discovery, the oceans, (the largest source of microbial biodiversity) provide Nereus a significant advantage in discovering new classes of drugs.
    In the past two years, scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the University of California San Diego, developed proprietary collection, culture and fermentation technologies to identify and produce structurally and biologically active novel compounds from these microbial sources. Nereus has exclusive rights to these technologies and resultant drug candidates through exclusive global licensing agreements with UCSD. The company already has licensed three novel marine derived drug candidates from UCSD that are undergoing preclinical evaluation.
    Nereus is progressing both technologies using its own resources and is advancing licensing agreements with potential pharmaceutical company partners for its drug candidates and drug discovery methodologies.

    In a town where telecommunications gadgetry is common, NeoPoint Inc. is proving to be a stand out. The developer of state-of-the-art smart phones and information services has received attention from industry analysts and publications for bringing to the market affordable, pocket-friendly smart phones that deliver the intuitive features that consumers are seeking. The smart phones provide voice services and e-mail, web browsing and personal information management functions in a simple, easy-to-use handset.
    In addition to smart phones, the company’s systems engineering division is providing innovative radio frequency engineering and consulting services to wireless equipment vendors, carriers and infrastructure manufacturers. Services include network system performance analyses, optimization and benchmarking to assist in the design, optimization and growth of CDMA networks worldwide.
    The company’s Web site at www.myAladdin.com provides services to users of both its phones and other Wireless Application Protocol-enabled devices. The service is designed to make lives simpler by conveniently providing consumers information they need when and where they want it.
    NeoPoint was founded by William Son, a leader in wireless communications fostering new business development in CDMA. Before founding NeoPoint, Son was regional director for Qualcomm in Korea. Based in La Jolla, NeoPoint is a privately held company with 160 employees.

    A global leader in telecommunications outsourcing, Wireless facilities Inc. plans, designs, deploys and manages wireless networks for some of the largest telecom carriers and equipment suppliers worldwide.
    Specializing in network architecture for mobile and high-speed data systems, WFI provides a complete range of network services — from business and market planning to advanced technology R&D, fixed network engineering, radio frequency engineering, broadband design and deployment, geographic information services, site development, installation, optimization, operations and maintenance.
    Since 1995, WFI has completed projects for more than 95 customers, ranging in scope from the installation of a single cell site to multiyear, large-scale deployment contracts.
    WFI is technology- and vendor-independent, enabling it to objectively evaluate and recommend optimal vendor or technology solutions. The WFI team of telecommunications professionals has experience in all major telecommunications technologies, including cellular, PCS, paging, wireless local loop, local multipoint distribution services, multichannel multipoint distribution services, point-to-point, point-to-multipoint, iDen, satellite, cable and fiber optics.
    WFI has projects in 26 countries. In addition to WFI's U.S. operations, work is under way in Argentina, Brazil, Congo, India, Kuwait, Mexico, Morocco, Oman, Puerto Rico, Spain, South Korea, Turkey and the United Kingdom. In 1998, WFI was involved in the development of more than 3,000 of the 16,000 cell sites built in the United States. Since its founding in 1994, WFI has been involved in the design or deployment of over 12,000 cell sites worldwide.
    Headquartered in San Diego, WFI has grown to more than 700 employees worldwide. The company has offices in Washington, D.C., Mexico City, Sao Paulo, New Delhi and London.

    VitaGen Inc., a La Jolla based medical products company founded In 1990, has developed and is in a Phase II multinational clinical trial with a revolutionary minimally invasive, nonimplantable artificial liver. The technologies supporting the foundation for the company include both biotechnology and medical device technology.
    In the area of biotechnology, the company is working on products based upon cell isolation, cell culturing and molecular biology. The company’s medical and scientific team has engineered a patented blood circulation device, which is designed to externally support patients with organ failure.
    The VitaGen BioAssist System, similar to kidney dialysis devices, removes blood from patients and purifies it through the VitaGen Extracorporeal Liver Assist Device Cartridge. The VitaGen BioAssist System and ELAD Cartridge are designed to provide sufficient liver function to do the following:

• Support an acute liver failure patient so that their own liver can regenerate for up to 10 days.
• Sustain and improve the condition of a liver transplant candidate until a suitable organ is available.
• Support a patient post-transplantation until the grafted liver is functioning adequately and can fully sustain the patient.
• Reduce post-transplantation hospital costs.
• Allow more aggressive surgical removal of liver tumors, providing support to allow the patients' remaining liver to regenerate.
• Reduce the mortality, morbidity and costs of chronic liver disease patients during acute episodes.
• Create the opportunity to perform routine split liver transplants.