NCBiotech News

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Cambrex, a leading global contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), celebrated this week the completion of its $38 million capacity expansion at its small molecule active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) manufacturing facility in High Point.

“We are extremely excited about this expansion in North Carolina, which would not have been possible without the support of the state’s leadership and economic development programs, and their focus on nurturing the region’s skilled and diverse workforce,” said Dan Bowles, Vice President and General Manager, Cambrex High Point.

This summer, five community college instructors had the opportunity to learn what it is really like to work at a biotech company or institution through the Biomedical Emerging Technology Applications (BETA) Summer Fellows Industry Program. 

The eight-week program pairs each fellow with a company or institution to gain experience in a corporate environment and learn the biotech skills and traits needed to better prepare their students for this workforce.

The North Carolina Biotechnology Center’s Piedmont Triad Office is welcoming five new thought leaders to its regional advisory committee.

The new advisory committee members include Ken Russell, Gordon Vail, Ph.D., Eric Muth, Ph.D., Summer McGee, Ph.D., CPH, and Serena Guzman. These new members are from unique backgrounds and experiences, academic expertise and industry perspectives which will guide efforts to grow the region’s life sciences assets. Geoff Foster is the new Vice Chair of the committee. Details about each new member are below.

Durham-based Atsena Therapeutics, a gene therapy company developing novel treatments to prevent or reverse certain types of inherited blindness, has raised about $24.5 million in private investment and aims to raise about $7.5 million more.

The funding, detailed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, was provided by 10 investors. The investment follows a $55 million Series A round of venture capital raised in 2020.

New developments at BioSkryb Genomics are positioning the Durham startup for future growth and a higher profile in the rapidly advancing field of genomics.

BioSkryb, which develops amplification tools for single-cell analysis, announced four agreements and milestones since early August. The five-year-old company, which secured an $11.5 million seed round in January 2020, has been building its core technology and its global distribution agreements.

Sequence Ribbon Cutting Ceremony

The continued growth of North Carolina’s life sciences sector serves as a springboard for one Triangle company that’s accelerating how highly skilled talent is trained.

Asensus Surgical

Asensus Surgical is turning to technology giant Nvidia to accelerate the development of its digital tools that give surgeons more insights in the operating room and beyond.

Informing Innovation 2023

On September 20, librarians, business development professionals, consultants, and students gathered at the North Carolina Biotechnology Center’s headquarters for its Informing Innovation 2023 conference. 

Led by NCBiotech’s team, the day-long event provided attendees with the latest information on life sciences resources, search strategies, and copyright and research basics, among others. One hot topic was artificial intelligence (AI), which was top of mind for many attendees.  

Kriya Therapeutics Inc., with dual headquarters in Durham and Palo Alto, Calif., has acquired a gene therapy startup that Kriya says will align with its approach to treating metabolic disease.

The AgTech Innovation Alliance, an agricultural innovation network spearheaded by California-based nonprofit AgStart, has won a $150,000 Small Business Administration award that includes funds to boost North Carolina’s growing ag tech industry.

The North Carolina Biotechnology Center is participating as one of the alliance’s eight regional partners in receiving the award. NCBiotech - the only partner on the East Coast - will receive $10,000 over two years to support and promote innovation in crop science, animal health, food tech and precision agriculture.

Dignify Therapeutics, a pharmaceutical and medical device development company in Research Triangle Park focused on restoring bowel and bladder control for elderly and neurologically impaired people, has added a new compound to its product pipeline.

The company has signed an in-licensing agreement with Aayam Therapeutics of San Jose, Calif., to develop Aayam’s ATX-003, a compound for on-demand defecation, and related proprietary molecules.  

TARGAN, Inc., a biotechnology systems and animal ag-tech company dedicated to improving agriculture through targeted applications of cutting-edge technologies, celebrated the official opening of its new Raleigh-based headquarters. TARGAN is the first company of its kind to be based in the Raleigh city limits.

The event not only marked a significant milestone for TARGAN but also brought attention to the region’s ongoing growth in the life sciences industry.

North Carolina is home to some of the world’s leading life sciences companies, renowned research universities, and workforce development programs to support growing demand for STEM-trained employees. North Carolina State University’s latest project, the Integrative Sciences Initiative and Building, highlights a key strength of the state’s life sciences ecosystem: an understanding of the convergence of disciplines at the heart of life sciences innovation.

Durham-based Levee Medical has gotten additional financial backing for its first product to improve patient outcomes after prostate surgery.  

The medical device startup announced that it has raised $4.3 million in oversubscribed funds that will be used to advance its Voro Urologic Scaffold. The investigational product is currently the only bioabsorbable implant to treat urinary incontinence following the surgical removal of the prostate gland.  

Biofidelity, a British genomic technology company with U.S. headquarters in Morrisville, has commercially launched a novel assay to guide the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer in U.S. patients.

The assay, called ASPYRE-Lung, simplifies and accelerates the detection of biomarkers for lung cancer, enabling clinicians to determine which treatment is best for each patient at a lower cost than current RNA and DNA sequencing tests, and in days instead of weeks, the company said in a news release.

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