Release Date: Tuesday, February 6, 2001

GEORGIA MBAs TAKE FIRST AND SECOND IN THE 2001 GEORGIA BOWL BUSINESS PLAN COMPETITION

ATHENS, Ga. — A pair of MBA teams from the University of Georgia's Terry College of Business finished first and second in the 2001 Georgia Bowl Business Plan Competition held February 2-3 at the Coles School of Business at Kennesaw State University.

The team of Ryan Barras, Rusty Denton, Tobias Eichner, Christian Hasslein and Torsten Schierholz finished first with their plan for ZymeX Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology venture based on several patent-pending inventions of Salman Biag, a UGA doctoral student in biotechnology.

The plan for ZymeX Pharmaceuticals is to commercialize Biag's invention of new lead compounds for protease inhibitor-based drugs. ZymeX has already used this technology to develop a new lead compound for the treatment of NCC, a Third World brain infection that produces symptoms similar to Alzheimer's disease.

In mice model testing, ZymeX's new drug has proved effective in destroying the cysts that cause the disorder with no side effects. ZymeX plans to use its technology, which produces more accurate lead compounds faster and less expensively than traditional drug development technologies, to develop new lead compounds for diseases such as AIDS, Alzheimer's and cancer. ZymeX will then license these compounds to existing pharmaceutical firms for FDA testing, manufacture and sale.

"As part of his doctoral dissertation, Salman has invented a totally new approach to lead compound development," said Charles Hofer, the Regents Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship who advises UGA's business plan teams. "In fact, the underlying structure of his approach is completely different than that used in the pharmaceutical industry today. More importantly, his approach produces far more accurate lead compounds and does so significantly faster and at lower costs than traditional approaches."

Finishing second in the 2001 Georgia Bowl was the team of Doug Combs, Matt Fowler, Greg Gardner and Dave Hill, who proposed a business plan for Mid-Range Exchange.com, an Internet venture that will sell used computer equipment.

Mid-Range Exchange.com would set up a reverse auction Web site for the sale of used mid-range priced computers and related equipment. The team estimates that the market for used mid-range computers exceeds $2.5 billion annually. Almost all sales are handled by some 200 dealers who are all members of the same industry association, which regulates the terms and conditions of such sales.

The industry is, nonetheless, very inefficient, with most used equipment being handled by four or more dealers between its first sale by the original owner and the final sale to the new owner, Hofer said. Mid-Range Exchange.com would reduce these inefficiencies significantly through its reverse auction process. Mid-Range plans to set up similar reverse auctions for used banking computers and used medical computers.

"The Mid-Range reverse auction system was designed by Combs," Hofer said. "He created a static e-mail version of the Mid-Range system while he was working in the industry as an IBM used equipment salesman. During his four years in the industry, he not only developed the myriad contacts he will use at Mid-Range, he also set several sales records."

Other business schools competing in the Georgia Bowl were Georgia Tech, Kennesaw State, University of Tennessee and Baylor University.

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