Future of Health Care 2020

THE FUTURE OF HEALTH CARE // PATIENT CARE
Praveen Arany co-founded OptiMed Technology, a biotech company in the dental space.
JOED VIERA
Oral health oracle
OPTIMED IS COMMERCIALIZING SEVERAL PROMISING BIOTECH PRODUCTS
“One of the best
ways to prevent
disease is simply
good hygiene.
We think we
can truly
revolutionize
oral care.”
PRAVEEN ARANY
BY DAN MINER
dminer@bizjournals.com
Praveen Arany has what you might call
a sweet tooth for innovation.
He earned a Ph.D. in biological sciences
in dental medicine from Harvard
University in 2011. He has been a University
at Buffalo assistant professor in
the Department of Oral Biology, School
of Dental Medicine, since 2015. He is also
president of the World Association for
Photobiomodulation Therapy.
Amid all that, Arany found time to
co-found a Buffalo biotech startup,
OptiMed Technology, based on research
from his UB lab.
Arany, who is chief scientific and
strategy officer for the startup, started
the company with Daniel Chan and Robert
Bachellor.
OptiMed, which has been accepted
to the Start-Up NY tax break program,
is working on commercializing two
technologies.
One is a specialty toothpaste and the
other is a 3-D printed denture material,
both designed to treat irreversible gum
overgrowth and fungal conditions.
The OptiMed team is raising money
for its first full-time hire, Saeed Rahman,
who will help drive development and
regulatory efforts and bring the products
to the market.
Once there, Arany said OptiMed can
quickly become a multi-million dollar
company and start capturing market
share in a $15 billion industry.
“One of the best ways to prevent
disease is simply good hygiene,” Arany
said. “We think we can truly revolutionize
oral care.”
12 THE FUTURE OF HEALTH CARE BUFFALO BUSINESS FIRST