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- Advanced Liquid Logic Lands Angel Investment, Loan from Biotech Center
- Over $99.4 Million in Venture Capital Raised in RTP in Q3
- Constella Group to Acquire Lineberry Research Associates
- China’s Suzhou Industrial Park to Open North American Headquarters in NC
- Metabolon Expands Service Offerings with Launch of mProveClinical™ for First-in-Human Studies
- Gentris Submits Tests for FDA Approval
- Red Hat Launches New Fedora for Desktop
- Adherex Enters Agreement with SIOPEL for Conduct of Phase III Trial of STS
- Nine Companies to Present at CED’s Opportunity 2006
Advanced Liquid Logic Lands Angel Investment,
Loan from Biotech Center
Morrisville-based Advanced Liquid Logic (www.liquid-logic.com),
a startup focused on the most miniscule measurement of fluids,
is the first company to receive a loan through a new program
launched by the North Carolina Biotechnology Center. The
company, which is utilizing technology developed at Duke
University’s Pratt School of Engineering, received $160,000
through the Biotech Center’s Strategic Growth Loan.
The program requires that companies receiving loans match the loan with at least an equal amount of money from investors. Loans up to $250,000 are available. The program is designed to help startups secure early-stage funding.
Advanced Liquid Logic is a CED member.
Over $99.4 Million in Venture Capital Raised
in RTP in Q3
Research Triangle Park saw nine venture capital
deals worth $99.4 million during the third quarter according
to figures released by Dow Jones, VentureOne and Ernst & Young.
Some of RTP’s largest venture capital rounds during the
third quarter went to Durham-based Motricity with $32 million
raised in venture capital.
Other companies that received venture capital include Morrisville-based Cempra Pharmaceuticals with $22 million and Raleigh-based LipoScience with $13 million. According to Joseph Muscat, the Americas director of the Ernst & Young Venture Capital Advisory Group, this is the first time since 2001 that there have been three consecutive quarters in which investments exceeded $6 billion. He attributed the growth to factors such as an improved liquidity environment based on a robust merger and acquisition market and the positive reaction of the capital markets to recent technology IPOs.
Ernst and Young is a CED member.
VentureOne is a CED member.
Motricity is a CED member.
Cempra Pharmaceuticals is a CED member.
LipoScience is a CED member.
Constella Group to Acquire Lineberry Research
Associates
Durham-based Constella Group (www.constellagroup.com),
a global provider of professional health services, has signed
a definitive agreement to acquire RTP-based Lineberry Research
Associates (LRA), a full-service, U.S. contract research
organization and consulting firm. Founded in 1995, LRA is
a leading provider of regulatory affairs, medical writing,
product development strategy, clinical trial management
and data management services for pharmaceutical and biotechnology
companies. LRA employs more than 75 people, all of whom
will join Constella’s pharmaceutical product development
business unit once the acquisition is complete, which is
expected to occur within the next 30 days.
This acquisition will provide Constella with greater expansion of its U.S. regulatory, product development, quality assurance, data management, medical writing and clinical trials capabilities. The combined organization will give Constella greater capacity and additional resources to expand its global platform to deliver full service drug development programs. LRA will begin operating under the Constella Group name in the next few months. Charles Lineberry, chief executive officer, and Cat Lineberry, president, will remain actively involved in the business as chief scientific officer, and vice president of strategic affairs, respectively.
Constella Group is a CED member.
Lineberry Research Associates is a CED member.
China’s Suzhou Industrial Park to Open North American Headquarters in NC
Chinese-based Suzhou Industrial Park (www.sipac.gov.cn/english),
one of the fastest growing industrial development zones
in the world, announced the opening of the Industrial Park’s
North American headquarters in Raleigh. Nearly 2,400 foreign
companies have invested more than $11.3 billion in the park.
The announcement follows a visit to Suzhou by a business delegation from North Carolina organized by the N.C. China Center. Companies that have invested in the park include Lily Pharmaceutical Company, Hitachi Semiconductor and Samsung Electronics.
Metabolon Expands Service Offerings with Launch
of mProveClinical™ for First-in-Human Studies
Durham-based Metabolon, Inc. (www.metabolon.com),
a metabolomics-driven biomarker discovery company, has introduced mProveClinical™,
a service offering that provides insight into a drug’s biochemical
and physiological effects in first-in-human clinical trials. Combined
with clinical observations and measurements, mProveClinical
provides drug development organizations with key information
on a subject’s response to a drug.
mProveClinical analysis requires only 100ml of a patient’s specimen, which is already collected during initial clinical trials. From this single sample, analysis of hundreds of biochemical metabolites is performed and used to identify changes across virtually the entire spectrum of known biochemical pathways. Once altered pathways are identified, the biological impact of these effects is summarized by Metabolon’s team of scientists. This data enables more informed decisions to be made about a drug’s continued testing and positioning or, if required, offers guidance as to how it can be repositioned.
Metabolon is a CED member.
Gentris Submits Tests for FDA Approval
Morrisville-based Gentris Corporation (www.gentris.com),
which is focused on genomics research and the potential
of individualized medicine, has taken a major step forward
in the attempt to commercialize its technology.
Gentris has submitted information based on clinical tests seeking Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for a series of genetics-based tests. The tests are already being used in research environments. The FDA is expected to act upon Gentris’ tests within the next 90 days. If the FDA approves the tests, Gentris can then market them commercially.
Gentris Corporation is a CED member.
Red Hat Launches New Fedora for Desktop
Raleigh-based Red Hat (www.redhat.com),
a developer of Linux software, has launched the Fedora Project’s
latest set of desktop applications, Fedora Core 6. Red Hat,
which sponsors the open source project, labeled the new
release as “the best of next-generation open source technologies”
with improvements for better performance and virtualization.
Fedora Core 6 provides a noticeable performance increase during the start-up of applications such as OpenOffice.org. In addition to the previously supported x86, x86-64 and Power PC chip architectures, this release features support for Intel-based Macs. Fedora Core 6 also introduces a new GUI virtualization manager.
Red Hat is a CED member.
Adherex Enters Agreement with SIOPEL for Conduct
of Phase III Trial of STS
Durham-based Adherex Technologies Inc. (www.adherex.com/),
a biopharmaceutical company with a broad portfolio of oncology
products under development, has entered into an agreement
with the International Childhood Liver Tumour Strategy Group
(known as SIOPEL) for the conduct of a Phase III trial of
sodium thiosulfate (STS). Adherex is developing STS to reduce
or prevent hearing loss in children associated with platinum-based
chemotherapies. The trial is projected to begin in early
2007.
The randomized Phase III trial is expected to enroll approximately 100 children with hepatoblastoma (liver cancer) from participating centers in some 30 countries. Patients will either receive cisplatin, a platinum-based drug frequently used to treat hepatoblastoma, or cisplatin + STS. The study, which will be coordinated through the Children’s Cancer and Leukemia Group (CCLG) in the UK, is intended to compare the level of hearing loss (ototoxicity) associated with cisplatin alone versus the combination of cisplatin + STS, as well as the safety, tolerability and anti-tumor activity in both arms of the study.
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