NCBiotech News

RedHill Biopharma, an Israeli company with U.S. headquarters in Raleigh, has received orphan drug designation for its pancreatic drug candidate from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Durham-based Baebies Inc., a developer of products and services for newborn screening and pediatric testing, has closed on $10 m

The University of North Carolina, a powerhouse in gene therapy research, has signed exclusive licensing agreements with a New York City biotechnology company for three preclinical gene therapies that could treat an eye disease, certain muscular dystrophies and rejection of corneal transplants.

Swiss-based Syngenta, which has its U.S. headquarters in Greensboro and its Advanced Crop Lab in Research Triangle Park, has obtained a non-exclusive license from the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard to use CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing technology for agriculture applications.

The newly published 2016 Evidence and Opportunity: Impact of Life Sciences in North Carolina says the state now has over 650 life science companies that directly employ 63,000 people and account for 260,000 jobs overall, providing $2.2 billion in state and local tax revenues and $86 billion in total economic impact.

A Research Triangle-based biological data analysis company founded by Duke University researchers expects to launch one spinout in about a month and another in a year to commercialize specific products it is developing.

NCEast Alliance, a Greenville-based economic development organization serving 28 counties with about 1.3 million residents in eastern North Carolina, will receive $100,000 from the state to help develop the region’s growing life science sector.

The North Carolina Biotechnology Center awarded 28 grants, loans and fellowships totaling $1.8 million in the first quarter of its 2017-2018 fiscal year ending Sept. 30.

North Carolina companies presenting at the 19th annual Southeast BIO Investor & Partnering Forum offer participants access to technologies to treat heart arrhythmias, lung disease, glaucoma, bacterial infections, and addiction.

Are you ready for chicken tenders that taste and chew like the real thing, even though they’re made from plant protein without a bit of chicken? A Triangle-based company, Improved Nature, already has them and other plant-based meat-like products on the market.

That was only one of the advanced food technologies discussed by a panel of innovators at the North Carolina Professional Ag Biotech forum Wednesday at the North Carolina Biotechnology Center.

Others included:

Wood, the traditional source of pulp, paper, packaging, biofuels and other industrial products, may soon find its way into fish feed bins and onto dinner plates with the use of new processing technologies developed by a North Carolina biotechnology company.

Ken Tindall, Ph.D., senior vice president of science and business development at the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, has won Southeast BIO’s Leadership Award, one of several honors announced at SEBIO’s 19th Annual Investor and Partnering Forum in Pinehurst.

Thirty-five years after its founding in 1982, Durham-based QuintilesIMS has retired its name for a new one, IQVIA (pronounced as “I-Q-via”).

Shares of IQVIA will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the new ticker symbol IQV, effective Nov. 15.

Raleigh-based Mako Medical Laboratories, a fast-growing diagnostic services company, will create 153 jobs over five years in Henderson, where it plans to build a $15.4 million testing facility with warehousing space.

Potential therapies for several rare diseases and cancers will be manufactured in Durham, according to Cambridge-based bluebird bio, which has purchased a 125,000-square foot manufacturing site.