Biotech company founder Sal Salamone honored as one of New Jersey’s top inventors

The Morning Call • November 2, 2016

The co-founder of a Bethlehem biomedical company can claim to be linked with Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein and countless other great innovators with ties to the Garden State.

Sal Salamone, CEO and president of Bethlehem-based Saladax Biomedical Inc., has been inducted into the New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame. His award, for “luminary discoveries,” covers the following fields: oncology research, therapeutic diagnostics, health care and medical device services.

Salamone’s company makes a test to gauge the level of chemotherapy drugs in bloodstreams. The drug gauge addresses the issue of cancer patients absorbing pharmaceuticals at different rates.

“We will not fully achieve the promise of personalized medicine until we also ensure patients are receiving the correct amount of drug for their body,” Salamone said in a statement. “This is my life’s work and I am deeply honored to be recognized for it.”

Salamone, who grew up in central New Jersey, has more than 30 years of experience developing diagnostics, and has earned more than 140 U.S. or foreign patents. The Bethlehem resident worked nearly three decades for Roche Diagnostics before becoming senior vice president of research and development for OraSure Technologies Inc. in 2001.

Three years later, he co-founded Saladax Biomedical, which is based at Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeast Pennsylvania’s TechVentures building on Lehigh University’s Mountaintop campus.

Salamone joined nearly three dozen winners who were honored Oct. 27 during an awards banquet in Hoboken, N.J. The event honors inventors who hail from the Garden State, from graduate students beginning their careers to veteran innovators.