innovate arkansas

The 2010 Rice Business Plan Competition distributed more than $1 million in cash and prizes at an awards banquet in Houston April 17. BiologicsMD, LLC, from the University of Arkansas took top honors at the prestigious event.

The champions are coming home with over $385,000 in prize money which includes a $285,000 equity investment, $20,000 in cash and more than $80,000 of business services, including office space, marketing support and business mentoring.

A long list of perks also includes automatic entry into other competitions and ringing the closing bell at the Nasdaq Stock Market in New York City.

All 42 teams received cash prizes. Fortune magazine co-sponsored and will feature the competition in its May 24 issue.

In addition, Biologics took home second-place in the graduate division at the 2010 Donald W. Reynolds Arkansas Governor's Cup Monday in Little Rock. The team earned $10,000 and a spot in the Reynolds Tri-State business-plan competition featuring the top four finishers from Governor's Cup competitions in Arkansas, Nevada and Oklahoma.

BiologicsMD is developing OsteoFlor, a new medication that hopes to build better bones. BiologicsMD is seeking more than $5 million in startup costs. Four UA students are the masterminds behind the budding company, which hopes to tap into the $9 billion global market for osteoporosis medication.

The second $20,000 NASA Earth/Science Engineering Innovation Prize was awarded to InnerVision of the University of Arkansas, along with $1,500, for its fourth place finish in the semi-final round. Rice University says InnerVision's proprietary extreme condition electronics "will improve the efficiency of electricity-generating turbines and reduce operating costs."

The two teams also competed at similarly themed competitions this spring at the University of Louisville, the University of Cincinnati and Carnegie Mellon University.

The Rice University Business Plan Competition is advertised as the world's largest and richest graduate-level business plan competition. In its ninth year, the RBPC was hosted by the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship and Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University.