NCBiotech News

GreenLight Biosciences Inc., which is developing RNA-based solutions for agriculture and pharmaceutical applications, has disclosed a $50 million first closing of its latest funding round.

RFPi, a Greenville medical device company that was bootstrapped with a loan from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, has received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to begin marketing its iCertainty blood flow and perfusion imaging device.

The North Carolina Biotechnology Center has received two grants totaling nearly $200,000 from the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to validate production of purple carrots and ways to improve hemp crops.

Fujifilm Corp. will expand its biomanufacturing facilities in Morrisville as part of a $90 million investment in its contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) business to meet growing customer demand for biopharmaceuticals.

Vast Therapeutics is celebrating the new year with Series A funding in excess of $15 million from Shionogi & Co., Ltd. (TYO: 4507) of Japan and a $300,000 award from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

bluebird bio, a gene therapy company with operations in Durham, has entered into an exclusive license agreement with Inhibrx of La Jolla, Calif., to research, develop and commercialize cancer immunotherapies.

Aerie Pharmaceuticals, an ophthalmic pharmaceutical company based in Durham, has reported positive results from a pilot Phase 2 study of an eye drop intended to reduce high intraocular pressure (IOP), a cause of glaucoma.

Traditional seed breeding methods are slow and expensive. But technology can speed up the process of breeding hardier plants at lower cost, according to Hi Fidelity Genetics, a Durham-based crop breeding company using artificial intelligence to improve seed genetics that recently closed an $8.5 million Series A round of financing.

Morrisville-based Locus Biosciences, a developer of precision antibacterial therapies, has signed an exclusive collaboration and license agreement with Janssen Pharmaceuticals that could be worth up to $818 million.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals of Durham has begun a Phase 1 clinical trial of an anti-viral drug for treating two serious viral infections, Marburg virus disease and yellow fever.

A potential drug for helping cancer patients withstand the side effects of chemotherapy showed positive results in a recent Phase 2 clinical trial involving small cell lung cancer, according to its developer, G1 Therapeutics of Research Triangle Park.

Grifols, a global biotherapeutics company with major operations in North Carolina, announced today that it will begin production of a plasma-derived treatment to battle the Ebola virus for the country of Liberia at its flagship Clayton manufacturing site.

The three-cornered Research Triangle is also among America’s top-three places to start a business. That’s the conclusion of the newly published winter 2018 edition of Inc. magazine, on newsstands now.

RedHill Biopharma, an Israeli company with U.S. headquarters and commercial operations in Raleigh, has closed on a $20 million public offering to fund the commercial launch of its gastrointestinal drug, Talicia. That will mean new jobs in the Raleigh area.

Criticality, a budding hemp processing company in the small northeastern North Carolina farming town of Hobgood, in Halifax County, is converting a tobacco-buying facility in Wilson to bring the techniques of Good Manufacturing Practice to the state’s newly expanding CBD industry, to minimize or eliminate instances of contamination, mix-ups, and errors.