Founded in 2004 to tackle biopharmaceutical problems, Advanced Product Enterprises thrived in its protein production for AIDS research. The two-man company analyzes proteins, including antibodies that have been proven to bind on the AIDS virus, and then clones the proteins for researchers.
An article in the Journal of Virology described a project funded by the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative in which Advanced contributed the antibodies.
‘‘We’re concentrating on producing large amounts of protein,” Joshi said. ‘‘We were looking for clients ... The market has just opened up for that sort of thing.”
Advanced’s sister company, Genova, is launching a project that could reduce the process for identifying and producing antibodies from roughly one year to about a month.
‘‘Once the money comes in for it, we’ll have it,” Joshi said of the project. ‘‘We have little time to get research completed, but our plans are there to become both a production and research company.”
Advanced Product Enterprises was the first business to move into the Frederick Innovative Technology Center’s new, second incubator on Metropolitan Court. Eager for more lab space, Garner moved the company from Industry Lane into the new building in only hours after FITCI received its occupancy permit, he said.
Though he declined to disclose specifics for the privately held company, Garner said revenues have roughly tripled since 2004 and are on pace to do so again this year. Private investments fund most of the work, but Joshi and Garner are eyeing grant money in the long term.
Earlier this year, Chesapeake Green Fuels of Adamstown approached Advanced Product Enterprises to develop a local test site for biodiesel. The burgeoning biodiesel company has been tinkering with its production process at its warehouse on Windridge Farm, in anticipation of opening a Baltimore plant next year. Co-owners — the Butz brothers Edward, Thomas, Robert and Jeremy, and partner Eric Franzoi — expect to annually churn out upward of 10 million gallons of biodiesel, made from chicken fat, soy oils or other greasy substances.
Chesapeake Green Fuels, which had been sending biodiesel samples to a testing company in the Midwest, could speed its production process with faster test results and sought out a local company to fill the niche.
Joshi said he was at first unsure whether Advanced could perform biodiesel tests, but ‘‘we looked at the testing procedures and realized how simple it was.”
Advanced secured equipment from PerkinElmer Inc. for six months to modify for biodiesel standards, including testing for amounts of water and igniting temperatures. Jeremy Butz said the test results have been ‘‘flawless.”
‘‘Doctor Garner’s lab has been an integral part of our research and development process,” Butz said. Advanced will likely be ‘‘an essential part of any Maryland biodiesel plant.”
Advanced accepts samples almost daily from Cheasapeake Green Fuels and Butz said the partnership will continue when the Baltimore biodiesel plant opens.
Advanced is also helping launch a method for certifying other companies to perform biodiesel tests.
‘‘Biodiesel has a lot of contaminants. They need to know whether any change they made [to the production process] didn’t affect the standard,” Joshi said. ‘‘We can tell them pretty rapidly whether their methods are working.”
Garner said he anticipates Advanced will continue with the protein, antibodies and biodiesel work in the incubator for two more years before settling into its own quarters.
‘‘We want to produce quality products and analyze them to the point of research,” Garner said. ‘‘The game plan is to continue to grow and serve the bio-diesel and bio-pharmaceutical industries.”
