NCBiotech News

Two animal health and nutrition companies that have partnered on product development for close to 16 years are now working in the same barn, so to speak.

With demand for organ transplants far outpacing the supply of usable organs, a Winston-Salem company is addressing the challenge through a novel technology and a partnership with Charlotte-based Atrium Health and one of the state’s largest organ procurement organizations.

Gary Pace, PhD, remembers precisely when he realized that Cell Microsystems had to change. It was 2014, and Pace had recently signed on as CEO of the UNC-Chapel Hill spinout company. He sat in a meeting listening to feedback from potential customers. “We had convened a group of academic scientists talking about what they need. Have they tried our product? Where can we take it?” he recalled. “It was at that meeting that I realized that we couldn’t take a technology perspective on the product.

The North Carolina Biotechnology Center awarded 19 grants and loans totaling more than $1.5 million to universities, bioscience companies and non-profit organizations in the second quarter of its fiscal year.

The awards, made in October, November and December 2023, will support life science research, technology commercialization and entrepreneurship throughout North Carolina. The funding will also help universities and companies attract follow-on funding from other sources.

A Greensboro medical device company is poised to launch a biopsy platform that includes a needle with a proprietary and patented design that will offer physicians a more thorough, accurate and efficient tissue sampling and retrieval method.

Kyowa Kirin, a Japan-based global specialty pharmaceutical company, has selected Sanford in Lee County as the location for its first pharmaceutical manufacturing complex in North America.

GXP-Storage, a leading provider of regulatory compliant storage solutions life sciences research, manufacturing, and healthcare-related biomedical and biodefense clients, has selected Nash County for its international headquarters. The first facility, to open in May 2024, will add over 200,000 cubic feet of secure storage space to meet the growing demand from regulated research and manufacturing activities in the Research Triangle.

The North Carolina Biotechnology Center is turning 40 years old. NCBiotech was founded in 1984, the first organization of its kind, as a catalyst for technology-based economic development in life sciences.  

As we celebrate this important milestone, it is important to take stock of where we have been, how far we have come as a life sciences hub, and where we are headed next. 

National Resilience, Inc. (Resilience), a technology-focused biomanufacturing company dedicated to broadening access to complex medicines, announced the expansion of the company’s clinical and commercial drug product manufacturing capabilities across its network, which includes a biomanufacturing plant in Durham the company acquired in 2021. 

CytexOrtho, a Durham-based pre-clinical stage medical device company working to advance orthopaedic treatment options for cartilage repair, has won the inaugural OrthoPitch Technology Competition during the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) Annual Meeting in San Francisco.

Elo Life Systems is a step closer to making the world a little sweeter.

Robbie King, a Ph.D. geochemist, was looking for a career change.

He considered taking chemistry courses at North Carolina State University. But he ended up at the school’s Golden LEAF Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center (BTEC) instead.

King completed BTEC’s one-year certificate program in 2021 and immediately went to work for Abzena, a contract research, development and manufacturing organization in Sandford. He’s now employed by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer in quality control and analytics, supporting the company’s Sanford operations.

Drug contract development and manufacturing company Catalent Inc., with operations in the Triangle and Greenville, is expected to become a part of Novo Holdings by the end of 2024 in a $16.5 billion deal that the companies announced Monday.

The transaction, however, does not specifically involve the North Carolina operations of Novo Nordisk, the Danish pharmaceutical giant that’s 77% owned by Novo Holdings.

The Research Triangle area is the hottest spot in the nation for biomanufacturing.

That’s the pronouncement from JLL, a Fortune 500 professional services firm that specializes in real estate and investment management.

A North Carolina ag tech company is landing some major success in using a new kind of eco-friendly, portable weaponry in the global war on pests. 

Plant Health Care (PHC), a publicly traded company headquartered in Holly Springs, has received Brazilian approval to deploy its biological TEIKKO (pronounced TAKE-oh) soybean “nematicide” into that huge South American market.