Elyse Stolz Dickerson, co-founder of Fort Worth-based Eosera Inc., a biotechnology company gearing up to launch Earwax MD, a topical drug that helps dissolve earwax, has won the Mary Kay Pink Tank Business Pitch Competition.
“I am so honored to have won this competition because it shows that people appreciate the philosophy of “healing humans” that is the backbone of my life passion and my work. It so happens we have developed a treatment for a serious condition, impacted earwax, that people of all walks of life confront on a daily basis. I am dedicated to inspiring and assisting other woman entrepreneurs in any way that I can,” said Dickerson, CEO of Eosera. She co-founded Eosera with another former Alcon employee, Joseph Griffin.
Eosera is developing a topical drug to rapidly disintegrate earwax. Accumulation of cerumen, or earwax, is caused by failure of the body’s self-cleaning mechanism. Eosera is working on an effective treatment that will minimize the treatment burden to both doctors and patients. Eosera has completed in-vitro testing and is working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in preparation for human clinical trials.
EOSERA has worked with TECH Fort Worth and the University of North Texas Health Science Center to develop the Earwax MD drug.
Dickerson was honored at Mary Kay’s first Women’s Entrepreneurship Summit in Dallas on Jan. 27. Well-known business leaders gathered at the Fairmount Hotel to mentor, guide, teach and inspire current and future female entrepreneurs. In partnership with The Dallas Entrepreneur Center, experts with backgrounds in sales leadership, fashion, technology, consumer-packaged goods, business services and other fields convened for the inaugural summit designed for women business owners.
The contest judges included Abi Ferrin, a leading Dallas designer and Mary Kay Cause Champion; Sheryl Adkins Green, chief marketing officer of Mary Kay Inc.; Abe Minkara, director of business development at Mark Cuban Cos.; Irving Mayor Beth Van Duyne, and Trey Bowles, CEO and co-founder of the Dallas Entrepreneur Center.
Dickerson has launched health care products around the world. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA from Southern Methodist University. She spent 13 years working for Alcon, a Novartis company. She focused on ophthalmic and otic pharmaceutical products, managing a portfolio of over $1.7 billion in annual revenues. She has spent her career developing products for unmet medical needs and bringing health care solutions to patients around the world.
Eosera is a majority woman-owned biotech company committed to developing products that address underserved medical needs. In 2015, Eosera won a $50,000 pitch competition by Comerica Bank, which helped raise the startup’s first round of seed funding, reaching $1.2 million.
TEXAS HEALTH ALLIANCE
ADDS 24 IN-PATIENT BEDS
Texas Health Alliance has opened its expanded inpatient unit.
The $7.4 million expansion adds 24 beds in time for the peak of flu season. Each private room contains advanced technology and equipment and is filled with natural light.
“This has doubled our bed count within the unit and allows us to continue to improve the health of the community we serve,” said Clint Abernathy, hospital president.
This is the first of two expansion projects at Texas Health Alliance. The hospital’s expanded and updated Emergency Department is scheduled to open in April 2018.
METHODIST MANSFIELD BEGINS
WORK ON MEDICAL BUILDING
Officials from Methodist Mansfield and other community leaders broke ground in late January on a second professional office building at the corner of Hospital Drive and Matlock Road.
The $11.8 million, four-story, 82,000-square-foot building will house physicians’ offices and space for additional hospital services when completed in December.
Partnering with Methodist Mansfield is contractor Skiles Group & GCC Enterprises Inc., architect Perkins + Will, and engineer WSP/CCRD.
Major tenants on the first floor will include primary care physicians with the Methodist Mansfield Medical Group.
The Methodist Moody Brain and Spine Institute will be located on the second floor.
Dr. Dilip Sengupta, an orthopedic spine surgeon who specializes in scoliosis and advance spine procedures with the Center for Scoliosis & Advanced Spine Surgery, will also be on the second floor.
The new building follows on the heels of the opening of the Methodist Center for Diagnostic Imaging (CDI) and its new outpatient-based imaging center that offers the first high-field open MRI in the community. The imaging center opened in December.
“As an outpatient imaging partner, Methodist CDI in Mansfield is able to deliver high quality and cost-effective medical imaging care for our patients with fast, convenient service,” said Methodist Mansfield President John Phillips.
Methodist CDI in Mansfield is located in the Alexander Medical Building at 2975 E. Broad St., Suite 101. The contractor on that project was Jimmy Trinkle with Four Corners Building Co., the architect was Tom Taylor and the design work was done by “Linear!” in Irving.
Send Health Notes to Robert Francis at rfrancis@bizpress.net