NCBiotech News

Raleigh-based Focal Medical, an oncology device company that received early funding from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, has been acquired by a Florida biopharmaceutical company. Financial terms of the sale to Continuity Biosciences of Bradenton, Fla., were not disclosed. “After nearly a decade of R&D, we are excited to join the Continuity Biosciences family,” said Tony Voiers, acting chief executive officer of Focus Medical. “We are grateful to our founders, scientific collaborators and investors who have helped us reach this pivotal point.”

Durham-based TruTechnologies has secured a strategic growth investment from LLR Partners to accelerate the expansion of its real-time clinical trial oversight solutions and fuel the next phase of innovation. TruTechnologies was founded in 2018 to solve the longstanding problem of tracking biological samples in clinical trials and has since expanded into products that provide real-time insight for trial participant screening visits and associated outcomes. The company plans to use the investment to expand its reach to more drug companies running clinical trials and to develop new products and capabilities.

Coriolis Pharma, a German contract research, development and manufacturing organization, announced plans to invest $10.8 million and add 50 new jobs over the next five years in Morrisville. The company will lease approximately 10,000 square-feet of laboratory space at Spark Life Sciences to provide a breadth of services to its clients, including drug product development, analytical methods, and manufacturing of biologics. Coriolis will be the first tenant at Spark. Coriolis Pharma, headquartered in Martinsried, near Munich, Germany, has about 200 employees worldwide, according to reports.

One of North Carolina’s largest life sciences companies, Biogen Inc. (Nasdaq BIIB), is celebrating its 30th anniversary in the state by announcing that it intends to invest an additional $2 billion at its two existing Research Triangle Park (RTP) campuses. The Cambridge, Mass., biotech giant said the investment comes on the heels of some $10 billion already invested in manufacturing facilities in the state – the company’s largest factory footprint anywhere. In a news release announcing the project, the company said, “In the next few years, Biogen plans to continue investing in multiple modalities and factories across the company’s two campuses in RTP.

A report by a coalition of North Carolina institutions outlines a plan to establish an agricultural technology (agtech) innovation corridor across 42 counties in North Carolina, with a vision of connecting the state’s technology, research and agricultural sectors in ways that broaden how farmers participate in and benefit from agtech innovation.

Many of the latest breakthroughs in helping the human body heal itself can be found in downtown Winston-Salem.

That’s where the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, as well as a partner economic development organization, the Regenerative Medicine Engine, are working to advance their specialty field of developing therapies that help the human body repair its tissue – and even generate new organs.

Three young Triangle-based medical technology companies with roots in Duke University research labs are getting major global attention from their industry.

They’re among the 65 cutting-edge companies from around the world that were recently chosen to participate in the 2025 Accelerator Cohort of MedTech Innovator (MTI), the world's largest accelerator for medical device, digital health, and diagnostic companies. 

For the third time in four years, CNBC has ranked North Carolina as “America’s Top State for Business” in 2025. “The Tar Heel State is on a roll,” writes CNBC special correspondent Scott Cohn, who created the business news network’s annual competitiveness study of states in 2007. “It captured top honors in the annual CNBC rankings in 2022 and 2023, and it was runner-up in 2021 and 2024 — missing the top spot last year by just three points to Virginia, which slips this year to its lowest position among states since 2018.”

Charles E. Hamner Jr., a highly respected and accomplished scientist, university administrator and pharmaceutical executive who led the North Carolina Biotechnology Center during its formative years, from 1988 to 2002, died July 4 in Chapel Hill. He was 90. “Dr. Hamner was so instrumental in building North Carolina’s life sciences industry that he is often referred to as ‘the Father of North Carolina’s Life Sciences,’” said Doug Edgeton, president and CEO of the North Carolina Biotechnology Center.

Verona Pharma, a year after receiving regulatory approval for its landmark chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) treatment, is being acquired by pharmaceutical giant Merck in a deal worth about $10 billion.

London-based Verona, with U.S. headquarters in Raleigh, has seen strong results from its new drug, Ohtuvayre (ensifentrine), since launching it in August 2024. It’s the first new inhaled COPD treatment to hit the U.S. market in more than 20 years.

Durham-based GeneCentric Therapeutics, a cancer diagnostics company, has closed on an $8 million round of venture capital to launch and commercialize a novel liquid biopsy platform for guiding precision cancer therapy. Proceeds from the Series C financing will be used to support GeneCentric’s GenomicsNext. This platform provides thousands of gene-expression measurements and high-fidelity DNA variant detection from tumor DNA that circulates in the blood. The company said in a news release that the novel gene-expression platform would accelerate the growth of GeneCentric’s pipeline of “predictive response signatures” for oncology therapeutics development.

Morrisville-based Liquidia Corp., a biopharmaceutical company spun out of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2004, is launching its first commercial therapy.

In May, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Yutrepia, the company’s inhalation powder form of treprostinil, for the treatment of two types of cardiopulmonary disease: pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and pulmonary hypertension associated with interstitial lung disease (PH-ILD).

Serving twice as commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has made Robert Califf, M.D., pretty much immune to getting tripped up by difficult or controversial questions.

“People should not feel shy about asking me questions,” he said at a recent public seminar held by the North Carolina Regulatory Affairs Forum. “I’ve been through two Senate confirmations. There was a strange love affair between (Senator) Bernie Sanders and the right-wing Republicans about nutrition. So, you know, there’s nothing you could ask that would be offensive.”

The North Carolina Biotechnology Center awarded eight grants and loans totaling more than $1.2 million to universities and life sciences companies in the second quarter of its current fiscal year.

The awards, made in October, November and December 2024, 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.

An online marketplace connecting life sciences companies with workforce talent in North Carolina has been retooled to better serve employers and job seekers throughout the state. The North Carolina Biotechnology Center’s newly relaunched Career Center site is now fully automated. On one recent day, the site listed nearly 2,000 jobs – about 15 times more jobs than the previous version of the site typically posted. “The increased number and diverse types of roles allow job seekers to quickly and easily find relevant opportunities,” said Pearl Sullivan, NCBiotech’s life sciences community engagement manager.