State Senator Gary LeBeau
October 30, 2009
Colapietro, LeBeau Visit Business Incubator Success Story
PLAINVILLE — State Senators Gary D. LeBeau (D-East Hartford) and Thomas A. Colapietro (D-Bristol), along with State Rep. Betty Boukus (D-Plainville) visited a Connecticut Small Business Incubator Program success story today to highlight their commitment to maintaining various pro-jobs and pro-business programs in the state budget.
Sens. LeBeau and Colapietro visited AllerQuest, LLC in Plainville, the makers of an important penicillin allergy-testing medical device.
In 2008, AllerQuest was awarded a $50,000 state Small Business Incubator Program grant to assist them in obtaining federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for a new manufacturing facility to help ramp-up employment and production of this important medical test. Just last month, AllerQuest received FDA approval to be the exclusive distributor of this penicillin testing device, called “PRE-PEN.”
“The incubator was very important to us. It’s how we got our start,” AllerQuest President Dr. Louis Mendelson said regarding the state program. “The grant allowed us to buy equipment. Without the small business incubator program we would be nowhere.”
“Maintaining these types of pro-jobs and economic growth programs has to be a priority in Connecticut’s budget going forward,” said Sen. LeBeau, who is Senate Chairman of the legislature’s Commerce Committee. “Programs like SBIP are exactly the kind of investment that is not only going to help us in the short term to emerge from this recession, but to position us for long-term economic growth and stability in the state. We need to keep that in mind when looking for budget cuts in the coming months.”
“I’m glad to see people getting hired and working for a change,” Sen. Colapietro said. “Maintaining programs like this is the best way to pull ourselves out of this recession and to keep people working. That’s important to my constituents.”
Rep. Betty Boukus said, “Thanks to pro-business policies like the Connecticut Small Business Incubator Program, we are seeing businesses take root and grow. Small businesses will be a major part of our state’s economic recovery.”
AllerQuest began at the UConn Medical School incubator program, one of 10 incubator sites around the state. AllerQuest has nearly 10 employees, some of which were hired in the past few months. They are now marketing their PRE-PEN product and expect it to be in medical offices in November.
While Governor Rell sought to completely eliminate the Small Business Incubator Program in her recent budget proposals, Democrats like Sens. LeBeau and Colapietro held firm to their commitment to protect and fund pro-business, pro-jobs programs like the SBIP.
In the end, Democrats were successful in keeping $1.3 million in the FY 2010-2011 biennial budget for the SBIP.
Public Act 07-4 created the Small Business Incubator Grant Program in June 2007. The intent of the legislation was to provide grant money directly to start-up companies housed in Connecticut incubator facilities for the purpose of easing the inherently high financial burden of growing a high technology based business in today’s economic climate.
The program was initially launched in December of 2007 and was funded with $1 million, which was awarded to 23 companies. Statistics show that companies that reside in business incubators have a much higher success rate than companies who are not given the support that is available in the incubator environment.
There are now seven different organizations in Connecticut that operate business incubators; those seven manage a total of 10 Connecticut incubator facilities that house more than 50 start-up businesses. About two-thirds of the businesses housed in Connecticut’s incubators are technology companies, which use the state funding for purchasing specialized equipment, prototype development, business marketing, patenting, product testing and certification amongst other things.
To date, the SBIP program has received a total of 58 applications requesting more than $2.57 million in funding.
For more information about Connecticut business incubators, visit: http://connecticutincubators.org/.
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