EDP Biotech captured first place and $2,000 in the “Idea in Motion” category for its recently launched COVID-19 antibody testing service and upcoming product. As Eric Mayer, the company’s CEO, told attendees at last week’s Knoxville Technology Council forum, EDP Biotech was ready to publish promising results of recent studies on its ColoPlex™ product to detect colorectal cancer at the end of February when the COVID-19 pandemic began to overtake the world. The company “hit the pause button” and explored how it could utilize the knowledge of its team and its facility to serve a higher purpose during the pandemic. The result was both running the antibody tests of others and developing its own test.
More than 200 people tuned-in to watch the roughly 75-minute pitch event that also featured four celebrity judges. They were:
- Tennessee Titans football legend Eddie George, Managing Partner of Edward George Wealth Management Group;
- Current Tennessee Titans Lineman Rodger Saffold, Co-Founder of Rise Nation eSports Team;
- Kix Brooks, the well-known county music artist and Owner of Arrington Vineyards; and
- Colin Wayne, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Redline Steel and the person named by Forbes as its “Most Interesting Millennial Entrepreneur in America” in 2018.