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LVL7 Systems Lands $15.8 Million Second Round
Morrisville-based LVL7 Systems, Inc. (www.lvl7.com), a networking software company, has secured $15.8 million in an oversubscribed, second round of funding. Carlyle Venture Partners, the venture arm of The Carlyle Group, led LVL7's most recent funding. The financing round included previous investors Gabriel Ventures Partners, H.I.G. Ventures and Research Triangle Ventures.

Company officials said they would use the funds to support the growth of its enterprise, access and metro merchant IP software business and to continue the development of software features to address new market opportunities. Since its September 2002 funding announcement, LVL7 has signed deals with several leading Ethernet silicon vendors.

LVL7 Systems has been a CED member since 2002.

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Raindrop Geomagic Acquires Cadmus Consulting
RTP-based Raindrop Geomagic (www.geomagic.com) has acquired Hungary-based Cadmus Consulting LLC, a company focused on new methods for computer-aided geometric design. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. The acquisition of Cadmus extends Raindrop Geomagic's software reach beyond the replication of a physical product into the realm of surfaces commonly used in automotive body design and consumer products.

Cadmus will now operate as Geomagic Hungary. Engineers in the new subsidiary will become part of the Geomagic software development team and will provide technical support to European customers. Raindrop Geomagic provides patented geometric modeling software that automatically transforms products from their physical form to a digital model for faster development, greater accuracy and automated inspection.

Raindrop Geomagic has been a CED member since 2000.

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FWV Acquires Mid-Eye Marketing
Raleigh-based French/West/Vaughan (www.fwv-us.com), a public relations, public affairs and brand communications agency, has acquired Mid-Eye Marketing (www.mid-eye.com), a strategic marketing and public relations firm also based in Raleigh. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

David Middleton, president of Mid-Eye, will become the chief marketing officer of French/West/Vaughn. Middleton founded Mid-Eye earlier this year to provide comprehensive marketing services to companies in the real estate, business-to-business and nonprofit sectors. In his capacity with FWV, Middleton will be responsible for overall new business development for the agency, community relations and expansion of FWV work into additional business sectors.

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AlphaVax Gets $16.8 Million Grant
RTP-based AlphaVax, Inc. (www.alphavax.com), has been awarded a five-year, $16.8 million contract from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The award supports the development of a vaccine for HIV using AlphaVax's proprietary vaccine technology under a special program to show promise beyond the early research phase. The program will provide funding for pre-clinical development, production of vaccine material for clinical trials and clinical studies.

In late September, AlphaVax received two other NIH grants worth a total of $16.6 million to develop vaccines against a pair of biological agents that could be used by terrorists. Peter Young, president and CEO of AlphaVax, recently spoke about the importance of grants during CED's October Biotech Forum: “Raising Venture Capital and Alternative Financing: Success Stories From Area CEOs.”

AlphaVax has been a CED member since 1999.

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Salix Partners with Korean Pharmaceutical Company
Raleigh-based Salix Pharmaceuticals Ltd (www.salix.com) has announced an agreement with Korea-based Chong Kun Dang Pharmaceutical Corporation (CKD) to market Salix's drug product, COLAZAL®, in the Republic of Korea. COLAZAL is an anti-inflammatory drug for the treatment of mild to moderate ulcerative colitis.

Chong Kun Dang is one of South Korea's leading pharmaceutical companies with 2002 sales of over $300M. CKD markets products in the cardiovascular, anti-infective and gastrointestinal disease therapeutic areas through a sales force of 300 medical representatives. As part of the agreement, Salix also will have a first right of negotiation for all CKD gastrointestinal products available for commercialization in the U.S.

Salix Pharmaceuticals Ltd. is a CED member.

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3 NC Companies Ranked Among "200 Best Small Companies in America"
Three North Carolina companies - Durham-based Cree, RTP-based Embrex and Krispy Kreme of Winston-Salem - have made Forbes Magazine's list of the “200 Best Small Companies in America.” The list, published in Forbes' October 27 issue, ranked Krispy Kreme at 29 and Cree at 119. For the fourth consecutive year, Embrex was on the list (this year Forbes ranked Embrex at 158).

Forbes' selection process starts with a screen from William O'Neil & Co.'s database of more than 3,500 companies whose latest 12-month sales were $5 million to $600 million. Shares also had to be trading above $5 by the end of September.

Embrex has been a CED member since 1999.

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Two Area Companies Ink Separate Deals with California's Affymetrix
California-based Affymetrix, Inc. (www.affymetrix.com), has signed separate deals with two area companies - RTP-based Paradigm Genetics and bioMerieux, a French company with U.S. headquarters in Durham. Affymetrix's collaboration agreement with bioMerieux (www.biomerieux-usa.com) enables the development of a broad spectrum of tests in infectious disease and industrial testing using Affymetrix technology. bioMerieux will launch its first product resulting from the collaboration with Affymetrix in the fourth quarter of 2003. This product will be used to verify the authenticity and origin of food and animal feed.

In the agreement between Affymetrix and Paradigm, the companies signed a services agreement whereby Paradigm (www.paragen.com) will provide microarray processing services using Affymetrix technology. Additionally, the companies signed an agreement providing Paradigm the right to use Affymetrix technologies for Paradigm's internal research programs.

Paradigm Genetics has been a CED member since 1998.

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RTI International, SAS Sign Research Agreement
Cary-based SAS and RTP-based RTI International have signed an agreement that will allow RTI scientists to use SAS technology throughout their organization for research and analysis related to health, environmental protection, education and training, economic and social development, and advanced technology. The agreement between SAS Public Sector and RTI also will drive efforts for cooperation on various government and industry-related projects.

This recent announcement formalizes a collaborative relationship that has been in place for some time between SAS and RTI. RTI (www.rti.org) is a multidisciplinary research organization, and SAS (www.sas.com) provides business intelligence. SAS Public Sector serves both the government and education markets.

SAS is a CED member.
RTI International has been a CED member since 2003.

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Events Update

October 31st — Capital Connection Application Deadline
November 5th — Success and Sagacity: A Spirited Conversation with Women Entrepreneurs
November 10th - 11th — Southeastern BIO Investor Conference 2003
November 13th — CED Information Session for Prospective Members
November 14th — CFO Roundtable
November 19th — CED Capital Connection Information Session
November 19th — Technology Forum - Outsourcing Strategies: Entrepreneurs Weigh Pros and Cons