Bob Brickman of Postlethwaite & Netterville joins New Orleans BioInnovation Center Advisory Board

Robert (Bob) Brickman, CPA, is a Director in Postlethwaite & Netterville’s Accounting and Assurance Services Group. P&N has been a long-time supporter of NOBIC, and the Center is grateful to have Bob serve on the advisory board.

Bob started his career in 1989 with Deloitte’s audit practice in Boston. He worked in a variety of industries, with a focus on manufacturing, consumer business, software and other technology companies. While at KPMG in New Orleans, Bob served public companies during the dawn of the Sarbanes-Oxley era. As an audit partner, Bob’s clients included oil and gas, oilfield service, maritime and shipping, among other industries.

Bob has extensive experience assisting clients with audit and accounting services, mergers and acquisitions, capital raising activities, and other business challenges. He has worked closely with equity and debt offerings in both public and private equity markets, including IPOs on major exchanges, secondary SEC offerings and private placements. Reflecting his experience and interest, Bob is leading the firm’s initiative in serving early stage growth companies and he recently served as President of the Association for Corporate Growth – Louisiana chapter, a national networking organization.

NOBIC selected to accelerate innovation for U.S. health security, daily medical care

New Orleans BioInnovation Center has been selected as one of eight accelerators in the nation by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to drive innovation in lifesaving medical technologies that solve challenging problems spanning modern health security threats and daily medical care.

“Accelerators are part of a new business-friendly approach,” said Deputy Secretary for Health and Human Services Eric Hargan. “This approach will help startups and other businesses shape the next generation of lifesaving technology and transform health security. That innovation is crucial to protecting Americans and saving lives.”

Accelerators will scout out innovative technologies and products that can be developed to solve healthcare challenges that extend beyond traditional vaccine and drug development.

One of the first challenging problems is the need for earlier detection of infection, creating technology that can alert people when they have been infected with a bacteria or virus even before they begin to feel sick. The second is the urgent need to solve sepsis, the body’s life-threatening response to infection or traumatic injury. Sepsis is a top cause of hospitalization in America, leads to 250,000 deaths annually and costs approximately $24 billion a year to treat. The number of sepsis cases could skyrocket after a bioterrorism attack or pandemic.

A new HHS unit called DRIVe – part of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) at the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response – will oversee the accelerator network and is recruiting a nonprofit partner that can work with private investors to fund innovative technologies and products to solve these and other systemic health security challenges. DRIVe also can invest in the projects using quick, streamlined funding methods.

To assist startups and other businesses in developing their technologies and products, accelerators will connect them with essential product development and business support services. This support could position innovative technologies and products for follow-on

investment from the public or private sectors.

“At a time when artificial intelligence and personalized medicine are not just conceivable but attainable, the time is uniquely now to solve some of the most daunting, far-reaching health security problems,” said Rick Bright, BARDA director.

Bright added that with the accelerators, startups and other businesses have a new pathway to bring ideas together, nurture them with experienced partners, and direct them to BARDA’s experts who have demonstrated success in partnering with private industry to take new ideas to regulatory approval.

New Orleans BioInnovation Center received approximately $88,000 as a DRIVe grant to serve as an accelerator. Other accelerators are: First Flight Venture Center (Research Triangle Park, NC), MedTech Innovator (Los Angeles), SUNY Research Foundation (Stony Brook, NY), Texas Medical Center Innovation Institute (Houston), University City Science Center (Philadelphia), Massachusetts Medical Device Development Center (Lowell), and Life Science Washington Institute (Seattle).

About HHS, ASPR and BARDA

HHS works to enhance and protect the health and well-being of all Americans, providing for effective health and human services and fostering advances in medicine, public health, and social services. The mission of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) is to save lives and protect Americans from 21st century health security threats. Within ASPR, BARDA invests in the advanced research and development, acquisition, and manufacturing of medical countermeasures – vaccines, drugs, therapeutics, diagnostic tools, and non-pharmaceutical products needed to combat health security threats.

For more about ASPR and BARDA, visit www.phe.gov/aspr. To connect with New Orleans BioInnovation Center and partner with DRIVe, visit DRIVe.hhs.gov.