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Athenix Secures $13 Million in Series C Financing
RTP-based Athenix (www.athenixcorp.com), a biotechnology firm focused on agricultural and chemical solutions, has secured $13 million in Series C venture financing. Finistere Partners of San Diego, CA led the round, with participation from Intersouth Partners of Durham as well as other previous investors Polaris Venture Partners, Boston Millennia Partners, Hunt Ventures and Eastman Ventures, the venture capital arm of Eastman Chemical Company.

The financing comes after Athenix successfully completed field trials last year on transgenic plants that have a new class of genes which are highly resistant to the herbicide glyphosate, used to kill weeds. The new financing will be used to continue product development. In January 2004, Athenix closed on $12.5 million in Series B financing. Its first financing of $8 million came in September 2001.

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P4 Performance Acquires Refense Technologies
Cary-based P4 Performance Management, a leading provider of intelligent and innovative Selective Outsourcing solutions to large enterprise customers and its majority shareholder, AJP Group LLC, announced that AJP Group has acquired privately held Refense Technologies, a Raleigh-based provider of vulnerability management solutions for the network infrastructure.

The agreement has been approved by the board of directors of Refense and the stockholders of Refense and AJP Group. The four members of Refense’s staff will be added to P4’s team, increasing the employee headcount to 29. The co-founders of Refense are 2004 graduates of CED’s FastTrac Tech course. The company was also selected to be a demo participant at CED’s InfoTech 2004 and an early-stage presenting company at CED’s Venture 2005.

P4 is a CED member.
Refense Technologies is a CED member.

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Bioptigen Closes on $250,000 in Round A
Durham-based Bioptigen, a startup focused on optical imaging systems, has closed on $250,000 of a proposed $500,000 Series A round, according to Private Equity Week Wire. Among the investors is Southeast TechInventures.

Bioptigen is a spin-out from the Biomedical Engineering Department in the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University. The company was founded last year to commercialize technologies originated in the laboratories of Professor Joseph Izatt. Bioptigen was a demo participant at CED’s InfoTech 2005 conference and a presenter at CED’s Opportunity 2005 Angel Investor Retreat in Wilmington.

Bioptigen is a CED member.

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Motricity to Power Sony Ericsson’s Application Shop
Motricity (www.motricity.com), the Raleigh-based a developer of mobile content services and solutions, has signed a deal to exclusively power Sony Ericsson’s Application Shop. The Sony Ericsson Application Shop is a go-to-market channel available to any third party application developer who has developed an application for Sony Ericsson phones. Motricity will power both the Web-based and mobile storefronts through its scalable Fuel platform, enabling Sony Ericsson to further expand its eCommerce and mCommerce capabilities.

In addition, Motricity will work closely with Sony Ericsson Developer World to support its partners in porting their applications to the new P990 smartphone and the UIQ 3 software platform, in order to leverage the application success of the earlier smartphone lineup and ultimately enhance the customer's experience.

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Adherex Initiates Phase 1 Trial for Cancer Drug Eniluracil
Durham-based Adherex Technologies (www.adherex.com), a biopharmaceutical company with a broad portfolio of oncology products under development, has launched the first of three Phase I trials for its proposed cancer drug eniluracil. Eniluracil, which was in-licensed from GlaxoSmithKline in July 2005, is being developed to improve the therapeutic vale and effectiveness of 5-FU, one of the world’s most commonly used chemotherapies, by inhibiting its breakdown. Eniluracil was cleared as an investigational new drug in November 2005.

The Phase I dose escalation study will enroll patients with solid tumors and is intended to define the maximum tolerated dose of weekly dosing of the combination of eniluracil and 5-FU. Adherex expects the study to be complete in the third quarter 2006 and then plans to initiate a Phase II trial in breast cancer.

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Seed Stage Associates Expands Tech Transfer Services to 11 UNC System Campuses
Winston-Salem-based Seed Stage Associates LLC (www.seedstageassociates.com), a wholly owned for-profit subsidiary of Wake Forest University Health Sciences (WFUHS), has won an expanded contract from the University of North Carolina system to provide technology transfer services to 11 of the university's 16 campuses. Since 2003, Seed Stage Associates has provided assistance in commercializing technologies and educational materials developed by faculty on the campuses of Winston-Salem State University, the N.C. School of the Arts, UNC Greensboro, UNC Asheville, N.C. A&T State University, Appalachian State University and Western Carolina University. The four additional campuses under the expanded contract are UNC Wilmington, UNC Pembroke, Fayetteville State University, and Elizabeth City State University.

The Seed Stage expertise is based on the success of Wake Forest's Office of Technology Asset Management. In the past five years, the office has had 181 invention disclosures, filed 58 patent applications of which 50 patents were issued, licensed or optioned 52 technologies and brought in a total of $130,833,669 in licensing revenues. For schools that are just establishing technology transfer offices, Seed Stage provides education, assistance, and training in creating these services. For schools with established offices, Seed Stage helps with evaluation, licensing and marketing of new technologies.

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Cirrus Development Partner Sepracor Launches Metered-Dose Inhaler
RTP-based Cirrus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (www.cirruspharm.com), a contract product development company that assists biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies with pharmaceutical product development, has announced that development partner Sepracor Inc. has successfully launched XOPENEX HFA™ Inhalation Aerosol, a hydrofluoroalkane (HFA) metered-dose inhaler (MDI).

This inhaler is used for the treatment or prevention of bronchospasm in adults, adolescents and children 4 years of age and older with reversible obstructive airway disease. Reversible obstructive airway disease includes respiratory disorders such as asthma and the reversible component of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Cirrus’ contributions to the development of XOPENEX HFA included assistance with pre-formulation studies, device selection, development of the HFA formulation, and manufacturing process development. XOPENEX HFA received regulatory approval in the shortest FDA review cycle for an HFA MDI to date.

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Bronto Releases New Features to Email Marketing Software
Durham-based Bronto Software, Inc. (www.bronto.com), a provider of email marketing software, has launched its Winter 2005 Release, further improving the company’s intuitive web-based application. This software release includes new features to help marketers maintain a consistent “look and feel” with custom web landing pages and to extend tracking beyond email to their website. Additionally, Bronto’s Winter 2005 Release makes it easier for marketers to manage the replies from their email campaigns.

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Events Update

7/21 Fast 50 Nominations Deadline
8/1 Tech 2006 Demo Application Deadline

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