WASHINGTON -- It should be the stuff that economic-development dreams are made of in struggling southeastern Ohio.

Unless, that is, the Federal Aviation Administration turns a Marietta company's dreams of profits and well-paying new jobs into a nightmare of red tape and bureaucratic delays.

The owner of Marietta-based Farrar Scientific says he has reinvented the wheel when it comes to keeping pharmaceutical products at a constant temperature during transport.

Don't just take his word for it, says Scott Farrar. His refrigerated, portable cargo box, which he says could be placed anywhere in the cargo hold of a plane, won plaudits at a national trade show in September and is being eyed for use by one of the largest delivery companies in the world, UPS.

"We do have interest in this, because from a technical perspective it is definitely different than what is being used in the marketplace," said Dan Gagnon, the Atlanta-based director of UPS' health-care logistics-strategy group.

Gagnon said that after UPS ran Farrar's product through a set of tests, "This one definitely piqued our interest."

The sentiments were similar at a "cold-chain distribution" trade show in Philadelphia in September, according to Nick Basta, editor of Pharmaceutical Commerce.

"There was a buzz" around Farrar's product, Basta said.

It is a buzz that Farrar and other backers worry could be killed by inaction at the FAA, along with potentially dozens of new jobs in southeastern Ohio paying in the range of $35,000 to $80,000 a year. Farrar estimates that his company would immediately hire up to 25 employees upon FAA approval of its product, perhaps another 25 soon thereafter and ultimately as many as 150.

The problem is that FAA officials haven't been able to decide how to categorize Farrar's "PharmaPort," he said.

At least two other companies, one Swedish and one based in Dayton, make similar products.

The Dayton company, AcuTemp Thermal Systems, makes a unit that is classified as "active" technology because its compressor-driven refrigeration and heating system is actively running during transport, switching from electricity on the ground to batteries while in transport. It took nearly three years to gain approval from the FAA.

But Farrar maintains that the product his company developed employs a "passive" technology that requires less-stringent regulatory approvals.

During transport, Farrar's unit uses only small fans run by batteries, rather than a compressor or a heater, to circulate air over cold- and hot-temperature masses.

But the FAA hasn't agreed with Farrar that the invention should be considered a "passive" system. Agency officials decided last month that a completely new policy should be written to cover Farrar's product.

So nearly a year into dealing with the FAA, Farrar is faced with beginning a new approval process that could take a year and a half or even up to three years.

When told the news by FAA officials, Farrar recalled, "We said, 'That doesn't work, we will be out of business long before that.  "

He was already forced to let some workers go in September, and currently is down to seven employees from a high of 17.

ULD Logistics is a northwestern Ohio company that has invested with Farrar Scientific in the development of the container and has the rights to distribute the PharmaPort. It deals with the FAA frequently because it also owns an aircraft-repairs business, said Jeff Sabin, ULD's director of business development.

"The FAA has a system where they create categories like silos," Sabin said. "If you can't fit into a category, the FAA seems to have difficulty building a new silo to put you into."

Mike Jacoby, executive director of the Southeastern Ohio Port Authority economic-development agency, said Farrar is right to be frustrated. Washington County commissioners agreed to give a $35,000 economic-development loan to Farrar to help the company keep going while trying to gain federal approval.

"We expect companies to innovate to be competitive, but with this project it seems as if the federal bureaucracy doesn't accommodate innovation very well at all," Jacoby said.

A spokesman for Sen. Sherrod Brown says the Ohio Democrat's office is trying to help Farrar navigate the FAA byways.

Farrar hopes to meet with FAA officials in Washington this month and persuade them to allow the PharmaPort to be approved without having to write an entirely new policy.

The FAA declined a Dispatch request to interview the agency officials in Washington and Chicago with whom Farrar has been dealing. An FAA spokesman released a statement saying:

"We can't go into specific details of a certification project, but we have explored several options with the customer, none of which seem viable in the short term. The FAA will continue to consider possible alternatives as they arise, but must work within established processes that have given us the incredibly safe aviation system we all enjoy today."

jriskind@dispatch.com