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Chimerix Raises $11 Million Series C
Chimerix Inc. (www.chimerix-inc.com), a biotech company with offices in San Diego and Durham, has raised $11 million from a private placement of Series C preferred stock. Frazier Healthcare Ventures, a new investor, led the round with additional funding from founding investors Sanderling Ventures and Asset Management Company.

This financing will help the company advance its current therapeutic programs and broaden the application of our proprietary technology to new therapeutic indications. The funds will allow Chimerix to acquire additional developmental resources for advancing the company's lead antiviral agent (CMX001) for treatment of smallpox infection toward clinical trials. The financing will complement a $36.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health awarded to Chimerix.

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Peak 10 Acquires Kentucky-based Xodiax
Peak 10, Inc. (www.peak10.com), a data center and managed services provider with offices across the Southeast, has acquired Xodiax, a Louisville, Ky.-based provider of managed services, collocation, hosting and connectivity. Additional terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

The acquisition increases Peak 10's geographic footprint and market presence in the Southeast, company officials said. The company will now own and operate five enterprise-class data centers in five key markets, which deliver services, infrastructure, security and performance to small, medium and large businesses. Under the terms of the agreement, Xodiax will operate as Xodiax, a Peak 10 company. The company's data center, management team and employee population will remain in the Louisville market.

Peak 10 is a CED member.

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SPX Service Solutions Acquires AutoXray
Charlotte-based SPX Corp. (NYSE: SPW, www.spx.com), a diversified provider of technical products and systems, announced that its Service Solutions business has acquired AutoXray. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Service Solutions is a leader in the design, manufacture and marketing of special service tools, advanced diagnostics and service equipment, inspection and gauging systems, and technical and training information. AutoXray is an Arizona-based designer of automotive diagnostic test equipment.

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Norak Signs Second Licensing Deal with AstraZenica
RTP-based Norak Biosciences, Inc. (www.norakbio.com) has signed a second license agreement with AstraZeneca to continue use of Transfluor Technology in its G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) drug discovery program. Financial terms were not disclosed.

AstraZeneca will use Transfluor to advance novel lead compounds discovered from a primary high throughput screen utilizing Transfluor under an agreement announced in June 2002. The terms of the 2002 agreement called for Norak to develop a cell line for an AstraZeneca GPCR target of interest that was then screened by AstraZeneca, according to company reports. Norak's Transfluor technology is a patented, universal GPCR drug discovery technology designed to be the most direct and accurate method for screening potential drug candidates against GPCR targets, whether known or orphan.

Norak Biosciences is a CED member.

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Quill Medical Receives FDA Clearance for Surgical Suture
RTP-based Quill Medical, Inc. (www.quillmedical.com) has received 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its Quill Barbed Polydioxanone Suture, for wound closure of dermal tissue. The product is the first in a series of tissue repair devices that the company is developing. These products, based on Quill's patented technology, enable surgical sutures to “self-anchor” in tissue without the need of a suture knot.

This U.S. clearance follows last May's European marketing approval. Other products based on Quill Medical's patented suture technology have also recently been approved by the FDA for use as minimally-invasive devices for lifting skin in cosmetic surgery applications. The approval of the cosmetic surgery product was obtained in conjunction with its partner in the aesthetics field, Surgical Specialties Corp. of Reading, PA, and will be marketed under the name “Contour Thread,” according to company reports.

Quill Medical is a CED member.

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MCNC-RDI to Collaborate with Lucent on DOD Nanotechnology Development
RTP's MCNC Research & Development Institute (www.mcnc-rdi.org) has signed an agreement with Lucent Technologies to jointly develop microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) that are expected to increase communication speeds in the multi-gigabit-per-second range, for use in three-dimensional imaging. MCNC-RDI will collaborate on the project with Lucent's Bell Labs R&D division, and the New Jersey Nanotechnology Consortium (NJNC), based at and run by Bell Labs.

The project is supported by the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA), according to company reports. The Lucent contract for the project was awarded by DARPA in April 2004 for a total of $13.5 million and is scheduled for completion by March 2006.

MCNC-RDI is a CED member.

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StrikeIron Teams with DreamFactory to Deliver Web Services to Salesforce.com
Durham-based StrikeIron, Inc. (www.strikeiron.com), has teamed with DreamFactory Software (www.dreamfactory.com), a provider of client user interfaces for Web services, to deliver Web services to Salesforce.com customers. Under the terms of the agreement, DreamFactory will integrate StrikeIron's CRM-related Premium Web Services directly within SBuilder, DreamFactory's Web application for extending the on-demand capabilities of Salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM).

StrikeIron Premium Web services is now available through DreamFactory's SBuilder to the salesforce.com community. StrikeIron's services include a real-time connection to Federal and State Do-Not-Call lists for Do-Not-Call compliance, instant telephone number lookups with 24-hour data accuracy, address verification and enhancement via USPS, live sales and use tax rates for calculating sales tax on-demand, and online verification of email addresses.

StrikeIron is a CED member.

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SciQuest Adds New Functionalities to Sourcing Manager Solution
Morrisville-based SciQuest, Inc. (www.sciquest.com), has added reverse auction and supplier management capabilities to Sourcing Manager - an on-demand bid management solution that helps organizations move away from the traditional paper-based bid process. The newly added functionality enables an organization to conduct real-time reverse auction events.

Among the services allowed under SciQuest's solution: creating an auction, inviting suppliers, previewing the auction, monitoring and controlling the auction, tabulating auction responses, graphing auction results and automatic archival of auction history. The solution also provides a supplier portal to manage profiles, view events, enter responses, send messages, and see awarded items.

SciQuest is a CED member.

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Events Update

November 15 — Biotechnology Forum: The Drug-Device Intersection: Combination Devices and North Carolina's Life Science Future
November 18 — CED Information Session for Prospective Members
November 19 — CFO Roundtable - Mergers & Acquistions
December 4 — Innovator's Workshop
January 27 — Engage: Finance