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Orthocare Innovations Step Closer to Tapping into Defense Fund

OKLAHOMA CITY - Early this year Orthocare Innovations LLC of Oklahoma City formed an alliance to seek U.S. Defense Department funds for prosthetic research, manufacturing and commercialization.

The company is now a step closer to tapping into defense funding, Doug McCormack, CEO, said on Monday.

The U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee's markup of the National Defense Authorization Act for the 2010 fiscal year includes $8 million for Orthocare's Rehabilitation Technology Transition Center for prosthetic and other medical technology. The center's other supporters include the University of Oklahoma Health Science's Center, Presbyterian Health Foundation, the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber, i2E, Oklahoma's EDGE Fund and Francis Tuttle Technology Center. 

The National Defense Authorization Act funding has not been finalized.

'This is an early step in the process,' McCormack said. 'This is not guarenteed.'

The measure must go before the Senate and then to a committee along with a measure from the House, he said.

The bill could be sent to President Obama before the beginning of the fiscal year on Oct. 1, said U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla. and a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

McCormack praised Inhofe and other members of the Oklahoma congessional delegation for their efforts to have the funding included in the committee markup of the National Defense Authorization Act. Orthocare's prosthetic research could improve the quality of lives for veterans and civilians.

The company has received strong local and state support, McCormack said.

In late 2008, Orthocare was included in one of the first multimillion-dollar awards from the state's Economic Development Generating Excellence Board, known as EDGE. Orthocare received $1.6 million and was one of five technology-based proposals approved for more than $11 million in awards through the EDGE policy board.

Orthocare has about 40 employees and has been expanding quickly. Earlier this month, two researchers from Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory joined Orthocare.

Stuart Harshbarger is chief scientific officer with Orthocare. He was a program manager and systems integrator for more than $100 million in federal supported research over the last four years.

Harshbarger will continue to serve as principal investigator on the Revolutionizing Prosthetics 2009 Program sponsored by the Defense Advanced Researchs Projects Agency and will maintain a relationship with Johns Hopkins University through an appointment as a principal research scientist in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Matthew Kozlowski is director of robotic systems at the medical device research and product development company. He was a lead engineer in the biomedicine and national security technology groups at Applied Physics Laboratory.

Orthocare plans to add more employees over the next few months.

'We are constantly doing searches for new employees, McCormack said. 'We are continuing to find folks in Oklahoma and outside Oklahoma to bring to our team.'

Receiving funding through the National Defense Authorization Act would help Orthocare take the next step.

'The valley of death is where research companies can only go so far when they want to take research and technology to market,' he said. 'This would really help us to bridge the valley of death.'