Twins start firm to help allergy sufferers

Not bad for two young men raised in Chesterfield County who have spent the past decade balancing school, starting families and building a firm they say is "all about relationships."

"Our faith is of extraordinary importance in everything we do," Eric Edwards said. "Some would say this is a faith-based company."

Explained Evan Edwards: "When you have the management team and everyone in the company that shares a similar culture, when you go through some difficult times, it really tests you, and that's when you have to really rely on faith to get over those hurdles. . . . We have seen that time and time again. This whole idea of us having allergies and living with it all our lives and turning it into an opportunity, we feel is very divinely led. It's not just by chance that all these individuals have come into our lives and helped us make an impact."

The sons of Linda and Gary Edwards went to Monacan High School, but their paths diverged for college -- Evan heading off to the University of Virginia to study engineering and Eric to Virginia Commonwealth University for biology and pre-med.

"We pretty much shaped our education around this idea of creating a better delivery system," Eric Edwards said.

A grant from the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance started Intelliject, which in the early days was a family company, Evan Edwards said.

"We had our father be the CEO and our older brothers be a part of it," Evan Edwards said.

The brothers realized that to get to the next stage, they needed expertise they didn't have.

The Virginia BioTechnology Research Park, with its business incubation centers, offered a place to fine-tune their idea.

"We asked them to tell us their story," recalled David R. Lohr, executive director and vice president of business development at the park's Biosciences Development Center. "What are you trying to accomplish? What are you looking for in the way of help? We also shared with them our program, how it works, what it does and perhaps what it doesn't do. . . . We don't invest, but we can help them raise capital."

Lohr said his first impression of the brothers is that they had a unique and revolutionary idea -- they probably didn't realize how revolutionary.

"Not only did I see the potential to put epinephrine in this device, but I saw the potential to put a lot of other drugs into the device," said Lohr, who had run a drug-delivery company before. "Especially the newer biotech drugs that typically have to be injected anyway, they are very expensive, they would be more affordable if they could be self-administered, and the whole compliance issue would be better.

"We helped them to think about this as a drug-delivery company and not just a single-product company," Lohr said.