NCBiotech News

The president of Chapel Hill pharmaceutical start-up Eppin Pharmasays a $75,000 loan late last year from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center was an “absolutely critical” lead-in to a $225,000 NIH grant announced today.

North Carolina is one of the world’s leading centers for the manufacture of biologics, pharmaceuticals, vaccines, diagnostics, medical devices and related products.

North Carolina has substantial university and company assets devoted to health informatics, a quickly evolving SuperScieNCe field that uses databases, electronic medical records, bioinformatics and other tools to support clinical decisions that improve health care efficiency, delivery and outcomes.

Durham-based Viamet Pharmaceuticals has won a $1.95 million grant from the Department of Defense to develop a topical antifungal agent for preventing and treating mold infections in soldiers with battlefield wounds.

Morrisville medical imaging company Bioptigen, a 2004 Duke University spinout which makes specialized high-resolution imaging devices for non-invasive diagnoses of eye diseases and other medical applications, has reached agreement to be purchased by German powerhouse Leica Microsystems.

Modern agriculture has come a long way since the days when farming was basically “fert ‘n’ dirt.” That became clear as 135 movers and shakers from the expanding world of agricultural biotechnology shared ideas, auditions and a jam-packed day at NCBiotech’s third annual Ag Biotech Entrepreneurial Showcase.

North Carolina’s life science sector is producing unparalleled job growth and economic expansion for the state, growing nearly 31 percent from 2001 to 2012, in contrast to 1 percent overall private sector employment growth during the same period.

NanoMedica relocated from New Jersey to North Carolina in 2010. With assistance from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, the company is fulfilling the promise of commercializing game-changing innovations from Wake Forest University.

By Susan Poulos, NCBiotech Writer

Sentilus, a 2-year-old Durham biotech company spun out of Duke University with help from NCBiotech, has been purchased by Georgia blood testing company Immucor.

Liquidia Technologies, a Research Triangle Park company that’s turning its unique PRINT nanobiotechnology platform into a license to print money selling disease-fighting “stealth” weapons, has made another baby, Lq3, its second spin-out company.

The Jobs Networking event at the NC Biotech Center for the month of April was on Exploring Biomanufacturing

Jerry Baker. Photo courtesy of Ocular Systems Inc.

Jerry Barker is a Winston-Salem business leader with an eye on preventing blindness around the world.

Flucelvax package photo, courtesy of Novartis.

Employees rolled up their sleeves at the $1 billion Novartis Holly Springs vaccine manufacturing facility this week and joined the global throngs marking a revolution in the fight against flu.

It’s not often that graduate students and postdocs get to take the lead at scientific conferences, but at the annual Plant Molecular Biology Retreat, they do just that.