CMF I Portfolio Companies

Centron

Germantown, Wisconsin

Centron’s fuel enhancers boost gasoline and diesel mileage by 10% and eliminate 30-50% of undesirable emissions, including nitrous oxides and volatile organic compounds. With gasoline and diesel prices hovering between $4-5 per gallon, the average car user will save about $6 on each tank, and the average truck user will save about $50 on each full tank. In Milwaukee County, which has an EPA mandate to reduce nitrous oxides in the air, we know of no solution other than mandating Centron usage for gasoline and diesel, which would eliminate 20% of those noxious gases.

Centron fuel enhancer is added at 4 ounces of fuel enhancer per 10 gallons of fuel. It contains surfactants, which eliminate water and algae from the engine, and a mineral oil like substance, which improves compression, thus improving the engine’s ability to convert fuel efficiently into energy. The Capital Midwest Fund was the largest investor in the firm’s latest fund raise.

EpiCare

New York, New York

EpiCare sells products that heal wounds and burns, and minimize scar tissue. All of EpiCare’s products are Generally Regarded as Safe (GRAS) by the FDA and can be sold without a prescription. These products heal damaged skin faster because they accelerate the body’s natural microcirculation by bringing blood faster to the affected area. Unlike the current potent drugs used for wound and burn purposes, EpiCare’s products have no side effects, are non-antibiotic, and are based on Arginine Aminobenzoate—a naturally derived active ingredient.

EpiCare’s diabetic foot ulcer cream has been proven to perform better than Silvadene, the current leading product for this use. For kitchen burns, the ChefAid™ product is currently being sold through Ecolab and Sur La Table. For horse and swine wounds, EpiCare’s products are marketed by Alpharma. EpiCare is also in development tests with Monsanto for a product for mastitis, which is a major problem with dairy cattle.

Great Lakes Pharmaceuticals (GLPI)

Beachwood, Ohio

Great Lakes Pharmaceuticals is a clinical stage company focused on development and commercialization of products designed to prevent infections associated with indwelling catheters.

GLPI's first product is an anti-coagulant catheter lock solution with strong, broad spectrum activity against bacterial and fungal microorganisms known to form biofilm structures in indwelling catheters.

HarQen

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

HarQen is a web telephony company that uses its voice-to-web audio technology and social networking platform for business applications

Harqen's VoiceScreener product is used by human resource departments to create custom, automated phone interviews that reduce telephone screening time by up to 70% and quickly shortlist the best prospects. It allows the user to use the phone and a web-based dashboard to create customer recorded phone interviews. HarQen is working with search firms and demonstrating how they can more efficiently select and hire employees with VoiceScreener.

Immune Cell Therapy (ICT)

Chicago, Illinois

All cancer survivors live in fear of cancer recurrence. Although the threat of their primary cancer may have been removed, it is possible that undetectable microscopic nests of cancer cells may have already spread (metastasized) to other parts of the body and will be difficult to treat once they develop into cancer.

ICT is developing a personalized vaccine treatment to help cancer from recurring. A small amount of the patient’s own primary tumor is used to prepare the vaccine, so that the vaccine targets the specific cancer that the patient has. This personalized vaccine is much simpler and cheaper to produce than existing cancer vaccine therapies that are being tested. ICT has received approval from the FDA for its IND to begin clinical trials for lung cancer, which will initially be conducted at the University of Pittsburgh.

Ocularis Pharma

North Riverside, Illinois

Night Vision Complaints, which range from patient dissatisfaction to complete impairment due to glare, halos, starbursts, ghosting patterns, poor contrast and poor depth perception in dim light, have been recognized for many years, but have only received significant attention in the past decade, as the advent of intraocular lens implants and refractive surgery has produced significant numbers of patients who experience acute and chronic NVCs post-operatively. There is no medication on the market today indicated for the treatment of Night Vision Complaints.

To address the problem of NVCs due to light scatter, Ocularis has patented the use of an entire class of molecules that have been demonstrated to inhibit pupil dilation in dim light. The lead product, Nyxol Eye Drops, has been shown to be safe and effective in reducing pupil size in a Phase I clinical trial. Furthermore, Ocularis has successfully tested the drug in a Phase I/II clinical study demonstrating statistically and clinically significant improvement in low contrast visual acuity in dim light. A Phase II clinical study in patients with moderate to severe night vision complaints is underway.

Management expects to develop Nyxol Eye Drops within four years with a broad indication that will permit its use in the widest possible range of patient groups.

PreEmptive Meds (PMI)

Whitehouse Station, New Jersey

More than 50 million people have either fasting blood sugar or cholesterol which is higher than normal, but not severe enough to be considered diabetes or serious heart disease. This is referred to as “Pre-Disease” and is the primary focus of PMI’s first two products: PreCrea which lowers blood sugar and PreLipid which reduces overall cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein (LDL; bad cholesterol) and triglyceride levels and improves the level of high-density lipoprotein (HDL; good cholesterol). Doctors are reluctant to prescribe strong drugs for pre-disease and most acknowledge that OTC products have value.

PMI’s products represent viable options for preempting disease or assisting in medical treatment and are supported by meaningful clinical data. PMI is recruiting a highly regarded sales team. In April 2008, PMI received one of Capital Midwest Fund’s first investments.

ScholarCentric

Denver, Colorado

One of the most significant American issues of the 21st century is that about 33% of all U.S. students do not graduate high school and, in major urban areas, the drop-out rate is close to 50%. Numerous studies demonstrate that high-school drop-outs receive more wel¬fare, require free health care, earn less, pay fewer taxes, are incarcerated more frequently and, over their lifetime have an average cost to society of about $500,000.

ScholarCentric’s Success Highways™ program is the only university researched drop-out prevention program in the K-12 market and was developed by Dr. Scott Solberg at the University of Wisconsin in a multi-year study that identified the failure factors and developed a program for at-risk students to achieve success. Dr. Solberg’s program teaches students how to deal with stress, develop self-confidence, improve attitude toward school and understand the importance of education. The program maps a path that identifies what they want to be when they become adults. This resulted in a program called Success Highways™ which is currently taught to more than 10,000 high school students. To date, the program has proven to cut the drop-out rate in half.

VasoGenix

Lenexa, Kansas

Heart Failure is the single most expensive medical expense in the United States and affects five million people with 550,000 new patients annually. It is responsible for 250,000 deaths annually, more than any other disease, and is responsible for the majority of deaths among people over 65. Each year, Heart Failure is the reason for over 12 million doctor office visits and around 1 million hospital admissions.

VasoGenix is addressing Heart Failure by developing a naturally derived drug for both in-hospital and post-hospital use. No other existing or potential drug provides the combined potential advantages of improving blood circulation, reducing inflammation of the heart muscles, and is so readily accepted by the body because it is natural to it.

The in-hospital product will provide these benefits to a patient while they are hospitalized, reducing mortality, while the post-hospital drug will reduce subsequent acute heart problems, eliminating additional hospital expense.

VitalMedix

Hudson, Wisconsin

Hemorrhagic Shock results most frequently from motor vehicle accidents and gunshot wounds which together are the number cause of death for all Americans under 40. There are over 70,000 U.S. deaths annually that result from auto and gunshot incidents, and most are caused by Hemorrhagic Shock. In addition, there are 500,000 trauma-related emergency room admissions each year related to these incidents. Additionally, 50% of battlefield mortality is attributable to hemorrhage and resulting Hemorrhagic Shock.

VitalMedix is developing the Tamiasyn® drug to address the HS problem. Tamiasyn is not a blood replacement or a volume replacement technology; rather, it is a low volume treatment that addresses the issue of severe bleeding by providing energy (in the form of ketone bodies) to cells most efficiently under conditions where oxygen demand exceeds oxygen supply, thereby sparing oxygen for vital organ function. Through its other components, Tamiasyn prevents cell damage caused by both blood loss and during the restoration of blood flow.