Venture Update Vol. XI, #6, June 2007
Done Deals
Pittsboro – Biolex Therapeutics (www.biolex.com) has closed a $30 million Series C financing led by Investor Growth Capital of New York. New investors, JP Morgan Securities, Inc. and Easton Capital also joined existing shareholders including Quaker BioVentures, Polaris Venture Partners, Intersouth Partners, Mitsui & Co. Venture Partners, Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation and Dow Venture Capital in funding the oversubscribed round. The funds will be used primarily to advance Biolex’s lead drug candidate Locteron into Phase 3 clinical development in hepatitis C, and to advance the company’s other drug candidates. Contact Michelle Linn (508.419.1555).
Durham – Datacraft Solutions, Inc. (www.datacraftsolutions.com), a leading provider of lean manufacturing software, has closed a $4 million Series A round to fund the company’s expansion. The leading investor in this round was True Ventures, a company with offices located in California and northern Virginia. Contact Jerry Bryant (800.819.5326).
RTP – Entegrion (www.entegrion.com), a drug development company focused on the science of hemostatis, has secured $3.7 million from unnamed private investors in a Series B round. The funds will go toward pushing their hemostasis products into the market. The company plans to complete a $5 million Series B round in the coming months. Contact Stacy M. Diala (919.536.1500).
Cary – BrightDoor Systems, Inc. (www.brightdoor.com), a provider of on-demand customer experience management software and services for the real estate sector, has secured $2.1 million in Series A funding. WWC Capital Group and IDEA Fund Partners were the lead investors of the round. The funding provides capital for BrightDoor to expand in the real estate industry and will be used to stimulate the customer service, integrated sales and marketing platform of the company. Contact Elliott Koppel (919.678.9940).
RTP – IDEA Fund Partners, a new venture capital partnership founded by the investment team of NC IDEA that targets investment in seed and early stage companies, closed an initial round of its inaugural fund, IDEA Fund I. IDEA actively seeks investments as it hopes to close with their target of $25 million. The investments will target information technology, material sciences and medical device companies. Contact Scott Yates (919.341.0655).
Concord - CT Communications, Inc. (CTC) (www.ctc.net), a provider of integrated telecommunications services, has signed a definitive agreement to merge with Windstream Corporation. Including the assumption of cash and debt, the transaction is valued at approximately $585 million. The merger is subject to approvals from federal and state regulators, as well as CTC shareholders. Contact Jim Hausman (704.722.2410).
Wilmington – AAIPharma Inc. (www.aaipharma.com), a global provider of product development and support services to numerous industries, has acquired Instituto de Pesquisa Clinica de São Paolo, Ltd. (IPCSP), a Brazilian contract research organization. The terms of the acquisition were no disclosed. The addition of IPCSP to AAIPharma’s existing operations in South America provides a platform for AAIPharma’s growth in that region. Contact Anna Munoz (919.870.5718).
Cary – Consonus Technologies, Inc. (www.consonus.com), a company that specializes in high-availability data, has filed a Registration Statement on Form S-1 with the SEC. The company also filed a preliminary prospectus with the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan. This prospectus was made in connection with the initial public offering of its common shares. Contact Kelly Sawyer (801.617.2989).
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On the Up
Virtual Heroes, Inc.
Cary, N.C.
Electronic gaming of all types has gained increased popularity across the country in recent years. Virtual Heroes Inc. (VHI), the “Advanced Learning Technology Company,” is using this popularity to its advantage by creating interactive learning tools that combine the entertainment of video games with important educational content.
Industry veterans from the interactive entertainment and defense simulation worlds started the company in 2004. Virtual Heroes, which recently presented at CED’s Angel Investor Retreat at Venture 2007, has made numerous advancements in the use of video games for educational and training purposes. The company’s goal is to become a leading producer of interactive educational software for the government, corporate and military markets.
Virtual Heroes’ first client was the U.S. Army. From this partnership came America’s Army game, the interactive software used to train soldiers in a risk-free environment to prepare them for combat. This software helps train soldiers in a variety of tasks, such as force protection, first aid and survival, critical thinking and leadership, mission planning and rehearsal, and procedural equipment training.
America’s Army continuously ranks in the top five most played online action games in the world with more than 5.6 million registered users and more than 1.2 million missions played each day.
More recently, Virtual Heroes created HumanSim, which targets health care workers such as nurses and emergency medical personnel. This game enables these health care professionals to train and partake in surgeries on realistic human organs in realistic situations. These professionals gain experience in rare and otherwise very risky procedures without endangering a patient.
HumanSim trains health care workers in key areas, such as clinical performance under stress, response to rare conditions, management of emergency situations and the repeat practice of new and complicated skills.
The Virtual Heroes products are part of the recent “serious game” entry into the entertainment world. These types of games focus less on in-classroom and textbook learning and more on interactive and entertaining learning. Virtual Heroes participated in the most recent “Serious Games Summit” in 2006. These conferences aim at forging links between the traditional gaming world and program managers, like those from the government and military.
Earlier this month, Virtual Heroes signed a strategic teaming agreement with Camber Corporation to join technological resources in order to gain more government contracts. Both companies want to advance training technology and have agreed to share technical expertise, contract support and marketing resources.
By pairing educational training with an interactive learning tool, Virtual Heroes taps into the popular wave of gaming while providing risk-free yet realistic environments to prepare soldiers and medics for real-world situations. In less than four years, their products have already gained high levels of success and Virtual Heroes continues to make advancements and generate new ideas for what has become a wildly successful training technique.
With the growing support of serious games, which will soon make up 10% of industry revenues, products like America’s Army and HumanSim are only the beginning for Virtual Heroes and the serious gaming world. Contact Jerry Heneghan (919.459.2512).
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New Developments
Chapel Hill – Oncoscope, Inc. (www.oncoscope.com), a developer of new optical biopsy technology for detecting cancer in its earliest stages, received $30,000 for winning first place in Duke University’s Start-up Challenge. Oncoscope also presented its cancer-detecting system “SCOBE-E” to hundreds of investors at CED’s Venture 2007 conference in April. Contact Dr. William J. Brown (919.323.1807).
RTP – North Carolina Biotechnology Center (www.ncbiotech.org) has loaned $175,000 to five research-based companies to help boost their commercialization and product development programs. The Biotechnology Center awarded the maximum in Business Development Loans of $25,000 to Biolume and Cognosci, both of the Research Triangle Park; to Agarigen of Durham; and to TeraDisc of Wilmington. Biomachines of Durham will work with the maximum amount SBIR Bridge Loan of $75,000. Contact Barry Teater (919.549.8814).
Greensboro – The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) (www.uncg.edu) and North Carolina Agricultural & Technical College (NCA&T) (www.ncat.edu) have broken ground for the South Campus facility of the Gateway University Research Park. The park is a joint collaboration between the two universities and will serve as a bridge between their research efforts. University officials expect the facility to be a “gateway” toward economic growth for the Piedmont Triad. Contact John Merrill (336.375.9232).
RTP – Lenovo (www.lenovo.com), an international technology company with a significant presence in the RTP, has expanded its partnership with Microsoft. Through joint sales, marketing and training programs in China and around the world, the alliance will promote the use of Microsoft software products. Lenovo and Microsoft will leverage the partnership to improve customer satisfaction and allow for optimal system improvements. Contact Ray Gorman (919.257.6325).
Wilmington – MARBIONC (www.uncwil.edu/cmsr/marbionc), an economic development organization that specializes in research and product development in marine biotechnology, celebrated the first graduating class of students from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington’s (UNCW) Business of Marine Biotechnology fellowship program on May 12. As the only program of its kind in the United States, students can earn a Master of Business Administration while performing critical research in marine biotechnology. Contact Nancy Stevens (910.962.2301).
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In the Pipeline
Cary - CeNeRx BioPharma, Inc. (www.cenerx.com), a biopharmaceutical company developing and commercializing treatments for diseases of the central nervous system, has signed an agreement with PharmaNess Neuroscience giving CeNeRx the rights to a series of novel cannabinoid compounds that selectively target the CB1 and CB2 cannabinoid receptors. The collaboration between CeNeRx and PharmaNess also includes drug discovery efforts aimed at further expanding their joint cannabinoid portfolio. Contact Barry Brand (919.321.6080).
Burlington – Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (Labcorp) (www.labcorp.com) has entered into an agreement with U.K.-based Interma Ltd. to license its technology for use in the combination of first and second-trimester Down syndrome screening results. The use of their Integrated and Sequential screening processes detect the highest rates of Down syndrome and decrease the number of false positives. The terms of this agreement were undisclosed. Contact Pamela Sherry (336.222.7566).
High Point – Banner Pharmacaps Inc. (www.banpharm.com) and JDS Pharmaceuticals LLC have entered into an agreement for JDS to commercialize Banner’s novel softgel formulation of Valproic Acid. Terms of the agreement between the two privately-held companies were not released. Banner’s New Drug Application for Valproic Acid Delayed Release, based on its patent-pending EnteriCare™ technology, was accepted by the FDA in February 2007, with approval anticipated in October, 2007. Contact William J. Jones, III (336.812.4729).
Pittsboro – Biolex Therapeutics (www.biolex.com) signed an agreement with Genmab A/S, a leading antibody development company, for a new class of antibodies. The agreement states that Genmab will evaluate Biolex’s patented LEX System as a potential manufacturing platform for antibodies developed with UniBody, Genmab’s proprietary new antibody technology. The results of the trial showed significant improvement in reflective total nasal symptom score (TNSS). Contact Michelle Linn (774.696.3803).
Durham – Inspire Pharmaceuticals Inc. (www.inspirepharm.com), a biopharmaceutical company focused in the ophthalmic and respiratory/allergy areas, announced the results of their Phase 2 dose-ranging clinical trial. Inspire was comparing epinastine nasal spray and placebo in patients with seasonal allergic rhinitis. The trial results showed that the higher-dose achieved superiority in the improvement of total nasal symptom score over the placebo. Contact Jenny Kobin (919.941.9777 ext. 219).
RTP – Schwarz BioScience (www.schwarzpharma.com/), a publicly traded pharmaceutical company, gained FDA approval of its Neupro Patch, a skin patch designed to treat early symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease. Neupro is a transdermal delivery system designed to constantly deliver rotigotine (a dopamine agonist) over a 24-hour period. Contact Antje Witte (+49.2173.48.1866).
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Mark Your Calendar!
CED's 2007 Entrepreneurial Excellence Awards
June 12, 2007
American Tobacco Historic District
Durham, N.C.
CED's Opportunity Conference
September 10-11, 2007
SunSpree Resort
Wrightsville Beach, N.C.
Venture Update is published by the
Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED)
an entrepreneurial support organization located in the Research Triangle Park, N.C.
Robert Albright, editor
P.O. Box 13353, RTP, NC 27709
Phone: 919-549-7500
FAX: 919-549-7405
email: news@cednc.org