You can read about North Carolina's efforts to develop a biotechnology industry in this week's The Economist in an article titled "Pipettes at the Ready."
News & Events
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- Wilmington-based Cortech Solutions, a privately owned sales and support firm serving neuroscientists conducting advanced brain research, has signed an agreement to distribute an electroencephalography (EEG) system made by Kappametrics, of Chantilly, Va. The device, called fEEG, is a unique instrument designed to measure tiny electrical signals from the brain through EEG even as the patient undergoes a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) procedure.
- Pharma giants GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer will be combining their HIV portfolio to create a new company. The Raleigh News & Observer reported that the U.S. headquarters of the new venture will be in Research Triangle Park. Pfizer and GSK both have products on the market and in the pipeline for fighting HIV. The new company will use that technology to focus solely on fighting the virus that leads to AIDS.
- Research Triangle Park-based Metabolon has been awarded a patent on its Ion Tracker software, which provides a mechanism for creating new chemical library entries. The 9-year-old privately held firm has more than 75 discoveries related to its specialized field of diagnostics, drug discovery and therapeutics called metabolomics.
- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a manufacturing process that will allow Biogen Idec to produce higher yields of its multiple sclerosis drug, TYSABRI®. The product will be made using the high-titer process at the company's Research Triangle Park location, one of the world's largest cell-culture facilities. "Developing this high titer process is another example of our world-class expertise and leadership in biologics manufacturing," said Biogen Idec Chief Operating Officer Bob Hamm.
- A team of students from West Johnston High School in the Johnston County community of Benson took home the $20,000 second-place prize last Friday in the 2009 Canon Envirothon, a weeklong North American environmental education competition held at UNC Asheville. More than 260 teenagers from 45 U.S. states and seven Canadian provinces studied environmental issues and resource conservation, while competing for a share of more than $125,000 in scholarships and Canon products in the event sponsored by Canon U.S.A.
- North Carolina State University will outline its activities on the North Carolina Research Campus in Kannapolis with a series of free public programs, "Discovering Nature's Possibilities," at the new research campus north of Charlotte.
- Scientists from three Triangle research institutions have teamed up in a contract with the National Cancer Institute to identify promising cancer therapy molecules and translate their laboratory findings into clinical trials. Researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina Central University and the Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences are among five teams across the country working with the National Cancer Institute as part of a national effort to bring more targeted cancer therapies to patients as quickly as possible.
- Global Vaccines, a Research Triangle Park-based non-profit vaccine company, has penned a one-year agreement with the World Health Organization (WHO) to help improve existing polio vaccines -- and possibly put an end to polio worldwide. Under terms of the agreement, Global will use its in-house vaccine technologies in conjunction with one of the two existing polio vaccines in an attempt to finally eliminate the last vestiges of polio as a human scourge.
- Two North Carolina students are among seven finalists participating in the Southeastern regional finals of a national competition for high school biotechnology research projects. The two students, and their schools and projects are:
- Durham's Inspire Pharmaceuticals has netted $109 million from the sale of more than 25.5 million shares of its common stock in a recent public offering. The company is to use the cash cushion to fund its development of treatments for various respiratory and eye diseases caused by malfunctions in hydration of the body's mucosal tissues.
- Charlotte Research Institute's Five Ventures Competition last week named two North Carolina biotechnology companies and a student-run non-profit as winners in its annual competition. Countervail Corporation of Charlotte won the Biotech — Pharmaceutical division. The company's products provide protection from and treatment of exposure to chemical and biological weapons.
- Oxygen Biotherapeutics, a Durham pharmaceutical company, has received approval in Switzerland to begin Phase II testing of its lead prescription product, Oxycyte, to transport damage-limiting oxygen to traumatic brain injury sites. Chris Stern, chairman and CEO of the publicly traded company, said the first of 128 emergency head-injury patients is expected to be enrolled in the Swiss study next month by PFC Pharma Focus AG, a contract research organization.
- Gwyn Riddick, regional director of the Piedmont Triad office of the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, was recently appointed to serve on the Science Advisory Board (SAB) at UNC Greensboro. The board's mission is to assist the science departments, research centers and laboratories at UNCG to achieve their goals in government/community relations, professional/industry relations, communications and resource development. Members advise, advocate, and open doors on the university's behalf.
- Charlotte-based Diagnostic Devices Inc. (DDI), which makes Prodigy blood glucose monitoring systems, said it is adding robots and some 200 employees to its Charlotte workforce, in an unusual shift of jobs to the United States from Southeast Asia. The company issued a news release saying it plans to double the previously announced increase of 100 people in its Mecklenberg County workforce during the next 18 months.
- Durham-based Rural Sourcing, Inc., has been chosen by Clarus Information, an Atlanta niche business-intelligence software solution provider for the life sciences, to create new technology jobs in rural America through its rural Centers of Excellence. Clarus said it chose Rural Sourcing to develop its next-generation product for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.
- Five North Carolina bioscience start-ups are among 16 young firms vying for more than $100,000 in professional services at this week's annual Five Ventures competition at UNC Charlotte. The April 9 finals at the university's Barnhardt Student Activities Center include biopharma start-ups Alaeras, of Cary and Countervail, of Charlotte; device developers HepatoSys of Charlotte and Ligamar of Chapel Hill; and Entogenetics, of Raleigh, in the student/non-profit category.
- A newly equipped wet lab facility in downtown Winston-Salem has opened for business, supported by a North Carolina Biotechnology Center grant of more than $70,000. The Wake Forest University Babcock Demon Incubator Wet Lab, in the Piedmont Triad Research Park, offers low-cost, multi-user wet lab space and support for as many as six new biotechnology and bioscience companies annually.
- Investors, entrepreneurs and attorneys discussed everything from the idea to the management team today at the Biotechnology Center. The event - Becoming an Investor-Ready Entrepreneur - took center stage at the Biotechnology Center today. About 100 people from across the state joined the discussion. See a slide show from the event
- Athenix, an 8-year-old Research Triangle Park agricultural biotechnology company whose early research was advanced by a $150,000 Small Business Research loan from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center in 2002, is being purchased by German-based Bayer CropScience.
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