A pharmaceutical company developing a safer, longer-lasting substitute for existing morphine-like narcotic painkillers -- the most widely abused prescription drugs in the nation -- has won $10,000 in an annual business plan competition organized by Master of Business Administration students at UC Davis.

Mujisan Pharmaceuticals of Mountain View won first place in the fourth annual Big Bang! Business Plan Competition, designed by the students of the Graduate School of Management to promote entrepreneurship, innovation and hands-on learning. A total of 21 teams participated in this year's contest.

Second place was awarded to Instant Effects of Santa Barbara, and Glycometrix of Davis won the People's Choice award.

Mujisan has proprietary drug polymer technology to produce novel narcotic pain relievers that would provide continuous pain relief for up to 24 hours per dose, with substantial gains in safety and reduced potential for abuse. Team members included Kevin Chee, who graduated from UC Davis in 2002 with a bachelor's degree in biological sciences.

A panel of five judges -- including professional venture capitalists and experienced managers from the Sacramento Valley and Bay Area -- served as final-round judges. Results were announced May 19.

Instant Effects was awarded $3,000. Team members include UC Davis MBA student Pejman Azarm.

Instant Effects provides product and technology solutions that allow mainstream and business computer users to easily access rich media and advanced graphics techniques using familiar software. The startup's first product is OfficeFX, a plug-in for Microsoft PowerPoint that gives users the ability to add customized, interactive 3-D scenes to any slide and create high-impact presentation themes that can be edited quickly and easily.

As the audience's favorite, Glycometrix of Davis won $2,000. The company is developing a highly accurate, non-invasive and cost-effective test to detect ovarian and other cancers based on the presence of particular sugars (glycans). Team members included Carlito Lebrilla, a UC Davis professor of chemistry and medicine; Suzanne Miyamoto, a researcher at the UC Davis Cancer Center; and Paul Yu-Yang, a UC Davis student working toward an MBA and a doctorate in biomedical engineering.

Other finalists were: Arête Therapeutics of Davis, which seeks to commercialize a new class of compounds to treat cardiovascular disease, inflammation and hypertension; In Situ Xpress of Davis, a biotech firm that is designing custom probes and services for mapping the cellular location of genes; and Inluminaire of Davis, which plans to sell fluorescent compounds found in blue green algae as optical probes.

Last year's winner, SialoGen Therapeutics Inc. of Davis, went on to become one of eight finalists in Fortune magazine's first MBA Showdown.