Originally doing business as Sisa Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, MA, the firm was an awardee in the original NSF and DOD programs (called DESAT) which formed the basis on which the federal SBIR program was initiated. Harry Pars, founding president, had previously worked at Arthur D Little. He was actively involved in the projects out SBANE - Smaller Business Assoiation of New England - which launched the initaive to make SBIR government wide. He used a familial connection to the then Speaker of the house - Tip O'Neil - to get the enabling legislation onto the floor of the House where it had been stalled by the energetic opposition through a process of sequential referrals in seven House Committees. The Senate had already approved the program by an almost unanimous vote. After the Speaker's order to release the bill, the highly conscientious debate in the House lasted several hours and involved several votes - the first of which passed by the narrowest of margins. The tide then turned and each vote was more in favor than the last with many Members subsequently chnaging their vote when passage of the law was eventually assured.
