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Tranzyme Merges with Canada's Neokimia, Raises $6 Million
RTP-based Tranzyme, a privately held drug discovery and development company, has agreed to merge with Canada-based Neokimia, a drug discovery company. The new company will combine Tranzyme's proprietary functional biology with Neokimia's novel chemistry platform. In addition, the new company will have a portfolio of drug candidates in late-stage lead optimization and anticipates having two compounds in clinical development in 2005. Tranzyme will maintain its existing facility in RTP as the focal point for its functional biology program, and will continue its drug discovery operations at the chemistry facility in Sherbrooke, Québec. Dr. Vipin K. Garg will become president and CEO of the combined companies.

In connection with the merger, the combined company also announced that it has received $6 million in convertible debt. Investors participating in the financing are Pacific Rim Ventures of Tokyo, Japan; BDC Venture Capital (Business Development Bank of Canada) and Desjardins Venture Capital of Montreal, Canada; Medtech Partners Inc. of Ottawa, Canada (MDS Capital of Toronto provides management services to Canadian Medical Discoveries Fund, which has a substantial interest in Medtech Partners); Research Triangle Ventures of North Carolina; and S.C.O.U.T. Healthcare Fund and Redmont Venture Partners of Birmingham, Alabama. The company will use the funding for optimization and preclinical development of its lead product candidates in gastrointestinal disorders and metabolic diseases.

Tranzyme is a CED member.

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Red Hat to Acquire Sistina Software
Raleigh-based Red Hat has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Sistina Software, a storage infrastructure software company. As part of Red Hat's "Open Source Architecture" strategy, the acquisition will provide Enterprise Linux customers a path to virtualization and vendor-independent storage solutions.

Sistina's storage infrastructure software is the foundation for building, integrating and deploying data-sharing storage solutions across the enterprise. Under the terms of the acquisition, Sistina's engineering team, consisting of industry experts in clustering and virtualization, will augment Red Hat's development efforts. The integrated team will work to make all of Sistina's technologies open source and available as a part of a subscription in the first half of 2004. Officials expect Red Hat's acquisition of Sistina to be finalized in early January at a purchase price of approximately $31 million to be paid through issuance of Red Hat common stock.

Red Hat is a CED member.

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TriVirix Acquires Indiana's UMM Electronics
Durham-based TriVirix, a manufacturer of medical and life sciences equipment, has acquired the assets of UMM Electronics, an Indiana-based company that designs and develops medical devices. UMM also holds patents on rapid development of customized diagnostic meters. Financial details of deal were not disclosed.

TriVirix officials said UMM will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of TriVirix and will use the TriVirix name. The deal will give TriVirix access to UMM's customer base plus a prototype model shop.

TriVirix is a CED member.

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Raindrop Geomagic Brings In Additional Grants
RTP-based Raindrop Geomagic has received two $100,00 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I grants from the National Science Foundation to research new techniques for computer-aided geometric modeling and multiple scan alignment. The computer-aided geometric modeling research focuses on functional decomposition, a new method for creating a computer aided design (CAD) surface structure from polygon models. Results from the research are expected to increase surface quality and reduce design time for automotive, aerospace and consumer product industries.

Raindrop Geomagic's other SBIR grant addresses the ability to align multiple scans from partial point cloud data. The company is researching new ways of detecting and quantifying "slippability," a common problem encountered when there are no features to stop two pieces of scan data from gliding over one other. Over the last month, Raindrop Geomagic has received three NSF grants for innovative research in capturing a physical object and transforming it into a digital model ready for manufacturing.

Raindrop Geomagic is a CED member.

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Trimeris, Roche Submit 48-Week FUZEON Data to FDA
Durham-based Trimeris Inc. and pharmaceutical giant Roche have submitted 48-week data from two studies of FUZEON to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, as the companies seek full approval for the AIDS drug. The data demonstrates that the addition of FUZEON to an anti-HIV drug regimen offers a significant reduction in the levels of the AIDS-causing virus and improvement in immune function over the 48-week span, company officials said.

The application was submitted nine months after the FDA granted accelerated approval for FUZEON, the first and only fusion inhibitor for the treatment of HIV, on the basis of 24-week pivotal data accelerated approval. Accelerated approval is a special regulatory status granted by the FDA for approval of a drug that is used to treat patients with serious or life-threatening illnesses and that provides meaningful therapeutic benefit to patients over existing treatments.

Trimeris is a CED member.

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UNC, Wake Forest Win Kauffman Grants for Entrepreneurship Initiatives
UNC-Chapel Hill and Wake Forest University are among eight schools nationwide to receive a prestigious grant from Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. UNC will receive $3.5 million and Wake Forest will receive $2.16 million to make entrepreneurship education available across campus. Under the Kauffman Campuses Initiative, selected schools must match the Kauffman grant at least 2-to-1.

With its grant, UNC-Chapel Hill will create the Carolina Entrepreneurial Initiative, which will focus on creating traditional business entrepreneurs, as well as social, civic and academic entrepreneurs. UNC's initiative will build a permanent foundation of faculty expertise, educational opportunities for students and productive engagement with the wider entrepreneurial community. Wake Forest's g rant will help establish a university-wide office of entrepreneurship and liberal arts, adding new entrepreneurship courses and faculty, creating a university Center for Entrepreneurship, and developing a fifth-year entrepreneurship institute for recent university graduates pursuing new ventures.

A panel of judges selected the eight universities from 15 finalist schools that participated in the six-month Kauffman Campuses competition. In June, each of 15 finalist schools received a $50,000 planning grant by the Kauffman Foundation to develop and submit an innovative and comprehensive five-year plan to inject entrepreneurship training and experiences into the culture of the university. Visit http://www.kauffman.org/pages/396.cfm for more details on the grants.

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NC State Receives $500,000 Pledge to Establish Entrepreneurship Fund
Richard L. "Dick" Daugherty and his wife, Marlene, have pledged $500,000 to North Carolina State University to establish an endowment to support "fledgling entrepreneurs." The endowment will fund activities of individual entrepreneurs on campus who are interested in developing new products and businesses. Funding for the Richard L. and Marlene D. Daugherty Centennial Campus Endowment for Entrepreneurship will be provided by Progress Energy on behalf of the Daughertys. Daugherty has served on the company's board for more than 10 years.

Daugherty worked on Centennial Campus as executive director of the NC State University Research Corporation. In recognition of Daugherty's contributions to the university, the conference room in the Centennial Campus Partnership Office has been named in his honor. Prior to his role at NC State, Daugherty spent 38 years with IBM, a portion of that time as vice president of worldwide manufacturing. In addition to Progress Energy, he has served on numerous boards, including those of Wachovia, Winston Hotels and Rex Hospital.

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Events Update

 
December 31st — Capital Connection Application Deadline
January 15th — Engage: Finance - Part One of CED's Knowledge, Networks and Trends Series
January 21st — Technology Forum - Government as Your Customer: Exploring Alternative Revenue Opportunities
January 23rd — CFO Roundtable
January 31st — Innovator's Workshop