Johnson & Johnson Innovation announces CertaDose as winner of latest QuickFire Challenge

Denver-based CertaDose to be awarded $100,000 for novel advancement in safe pediatric dosing on Nov. 28 at the New York Genome Center

Johnson & Johnson Innovation LLC today announced developers at CertaDose, Inc. have won its latest QuickFire Challenge: Advancing the Safe Use of Healthcare Products. The challenge called for potentially game-changing, early stage, innovative ideas to help advance the safe use of healthcare products.

Selected from among nearly 100 applicants, the winner will receive a research grant totaling $100,000, as well as entrance to a Johnson & Johnson Innovation, JLABS (JLABS) site, and mentoring from experts at Johnson & Johnson Office of the Chief Medical Officer. CertaDose^TM is a novel pediatric dosing system designed to reduce errors in calculating pediatric dosing for injectable medicines by simplifying the process for calculating milligrams per kilogram body weight.

"With prescription medication errors causing at least one death every day and injuring approximately 1.3 million people each year, our goal was to positively impact health outcomes by connecting with entrepreneurs, academics, scientists, engineers or startup companies who are advancing exciting new solutions in medication safety," said Joanne Waldstreicher, M.D., Chief Medical Officer, Johnson & Johnson.

CertaDose's Chief Medical Officer, Caleb Hernandez, DO, will be recognized on Tuesday, Nov. 28th at an event at the New York Genome Center, the future home of Johnson & Johnson Innovation, JLABS (JLABS) in New York, called JLABS @ NYC. In addition to an awards ceremony, the event will feature a panel discussion focused on fostering innovation to enhance medical safety, featuring Dr. Waldstreicher and Melinda Richter, Global Head of Johnson & Johnson Innovation, JLABS, as well as Arthur Caplan, MD, founding head of the Division of Bioethics at New York University Langone Medical Center.

"JLABS QuickFire Challenges are designed to detect and enable better solutions that have the potential to change the trajectory of health to positively impact our future," said Melinda Richter. "The purpose of the QuickFire Challenge program is to help all innovators – academics, independent scientists, researchers, healthcare providers – have a positive impact on people's lives."

Source: http://www.jnjinnovation.com