NCBiotech News

When URO-1 Medical of Winston-Salem needed help commercializing its new medical device, the startup tapped a neighbor: Novex Innovations, a contract development and manufacturing organization that helps life science companies get their products to market quickly and inexpensively. 

Just three weeks after scuttling plans to merge with a Pennsylvania company and move there, publicly traded Durham biotechnology company BioCryst Pharmaceuticals is selling up to $57.5 million in stock in an underwritten public offering.

BASF, a German conglomerate with global reach in chemical, pharmaceutical and agricultural science, has closed its huge $9 billion purchase of businesses and assets from Bayer, moving four facilities and more than 360 former Bayer employees into the fold of BASF’s Research Triangle Park operations.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved for sale Baytril Soft Chewable Tablets, the third pet medicine OK’d for Bayer based on the soft-chew platform invented by Piedmont Animal Health in Greensboro.

United Therapeutics Corp. has received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to begin marketing and selling an implantable system for delivering Remodulin, its treatment for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), or high blood pressure in the lungs.

The North Carolina Biotechnology Center awarded 11 grants and loans totaling $2,125,000 to universities, bioscience companies and other organizations in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2018 ending June 30.

Morrisville-based drug development company Liquidia Technologies shares began trading on the Nasdaq Capital Market yesterday, July 26, under the ticker symbol “LQDA,” opening at $12.45 and closing at $11.10.

As founder, president and CEO of Durham-based Eppin Pharma, Michael O’Rand is pursuing a contraceptive that he says would be “a brand new choice for men and also very helpful for family planning, for men and women.”

Early- to late-stage life science companies have until July 31 to submit applications to present at the 2018 Southeast BIO Investor & Partnering Forum to be held in Atlanta November 13-14.

Cereius, Inc., a young Durham biotechnology company developing new methods to cross the well-fortified blood-brain barrier to treat cancer that has spread to the brain, has received critical reinforcements in that battle: An NCBiotech loan and $6.5 million in a Series A equity round.

Durham-based hearing technology company MED-EL USA has been granted a U.S. Food and Drug Administration clearance to market its BONEBRIDGE bone conduction hearing implant system in the United States.

Durham-based Aerie Pharmaceuticals, an ophthalmic pharmaceutical company, has reported positive developments on its regulatory and financial fronts.

Three North Carolina companies joined the prestigious list of participants in the 2018 MedTech Innovator Accelerator and Showcase programs. The Los Angeles-based non-profit is a global competition and accelerator for medical device, digital health and diagnostic companies.

Research Triangle Park-based AgBiome, which harnesses plant microbiomes to develop novel crop protection products, has secured $65 million in Series C financing.

Locus Biosciences, a fast-emerging RTP company using genetic tricks to whack drug-resistant bacteria, has acquired EpiBiome, a young California firm with a high-speed technology platform that will add even more focus to Locus.