Ex-Pfizerites turn office closings into promising OtoMedicine start-up

Wednesday, August 20, 2008 | Source: Concentrate

A number of promising start-ups are rising from the ashes of Pfizer's Michigan ruins, and OtoMedicine looks like one with the most potential.

The Portage-based firm, which has offices in Ann Arbor, was founded by Pfizer refugees Peter Boxer (Ann Arbor campus) and Clark Bennett (Kalamazoo office) in 2006. They are utilizing technology initially developed at the University of Michigan.

The company is developing a dietary supplement called Auraquell that prevents noise-induced hearing loss.

"This is something you would take on a daily basis if you worked in a noisy environment everyday or temporarily is you went to a rock concert," Boxer says.

OtoMedicine is working on raising venture capital for Auraquell. So far the firm has locked down $3 million of the $10 million they hope to raise this year. Once that money is raised, Boxer and Bennett hope to expand their company's employee base from three people and a handful of consultants today to 7-9 people by 2009 and 25 in 2011.

They think there is a huge, largely untapped market to hearing loss prevention, ranging beyond the normal factory worker or concert goer.

"Our biggest markets are in the military," Boxer says. "One third of the soldiers can't be redeployed to Iraq or Afghanistan because of hearing loss."

Source: Peter Boxer, vice president of development for OtoMedicine
Writer: Jon Zemke