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Targacept Raises $33 Million in Private Placement
Winston-Salem based Targacept, Inc. (www.targacept.com) closed a $33 million private placement to existing investors. Led by London-based Nomura Phase4 Ventures, the funds will be used for the clinical development of the company's lead product. The company has been in registration for an IPO since May 2004.

Targacept is focused on the design, discovery and development of novel drugs to treat various disorders of the nervous system. It focuses on drugs that target nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, or NNRs, that serve as regulators of nervous system activity. The company has one product, Inversine, already on the market and has four additional products in various stages on development.

Targacept is a CED Member.

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Amphora Raises $20 Million in Series C Financing
RTP-based Amphora Discovery Corporation (www.amphoracorp.com) has completed a $20 million Series C financing. The round was led by 3i Group, with new investors including Novartis Venture Fund and Aventis Capital. Existing investors ARCH Venture Partners, MPM Capital, Venrock Associates and Versant Ventures also participated in the round.

The company hopes to use the funds to speed up preclinical development of its drug candidates while also furthering drug discovery efforts with its partners. Amphora is focused on pathway-based drug using a highly industrialized approach. The company has preclinical drug candidates in the oncology and inflammation areas.

Amphora Discovery Corporation is a CED Member.

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QlikTech Raises $12.5 Million in Venture Funding
Swedish-based QlikTech has secured $12.5 million in venture funding to further development of the company's business intelligence software solutions. Investors in the round included Accel Partners and Jerusalem Venture Partners. QlikTech plans to use the funds to expand its international presence.

Founded in Sweden, QlikTech has fully owned subsidiaries in Germany and the United States, including its North American headquarters in Raleigh. The company is focused on technology that provides business performance and intelligence solutions for data analysis. QlikTech currently has 1500 active customers in 43 different countries.

QlikTech is a CED Member.

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Southeast TechInventures to Build University Technology Accelerator
Durham-based Southeast TechInventures, Inc. (www.southeasttechinventures.com) is building a technology accelerator for the rapid conversion of university scientific breakthroughs into products, services, and new technology companies. STI works with university-based inventors to accelerate the commercialization of technologies and intellectual property in bioengineering, photonics and communications, information technology, materials science, and surveillance and security networks. By spinning out intellectual property, there is a direct benefit for researchers, investors, corporations, and the universities, through licensing and royalty payments.

STI is currently in the process of spinning out two companies, Bioptigen, Inc. and MBright, Inc. In addition, STI has been successful in helping companies raise SBIR grants. Company reports indicate that STI's SBIR grant success rate is five times the national average. The company attributes this success to STI's ability to ensure that technologies and business plans are properly developed and at the right stage for commercialization.

Southeast TechInventures is a CED Member.

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RTI International Awarded $26 Million to Study Vaccines
RTP-based RTI International (www.rti.org) has been awarded a $26 research contract from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The grant is to fund a study that will examine how a person's genetics affect his response to vaccines. RTI plans to conduct the five year study among a group of 2,000 Hindi and Muslim people in India.

RTI is partnering with Duke University, India's Institute for Molecular Medicine, and the National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases to conduct the study. The contract falls under RTI's Partnerships for Genomics and Molecular Epidemiology initiative, which was established to promote joint ventures among leading universities, research institutes, and technology companies to expand the frontiers of genetics research.

RTI International is a CED Member.

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StrikeIron Offers Four New Financial Web Services
RTP-based StrikeIron, Inc. (www.strikeiron.com) has added four additional financial management Web services to its expanding network. The company provides comprehensive coverage of key real-time financial information for everything from broad econometric analysis, portfolio analysis and in-depth stock, mutual fund, security, and company analysis. The new Web services will be available via a “pay-per-use” subscription model. The services have been branded as StrikeIron Market Indices, StrikeIron Mutual Funds, StrikeIron Securities and StrikeIron Exchanges.

An added feature will allow users of the new services to integrate this data directly into Excel spreadsheets. This capability is available through the beta release of StrikeIron OnDemand Web Services for Microsoft Excel. With this latest product, users can simply drag and drop Web services directly into their spreadsheets to build on-demand applications that take advantage of real-time data access without any programming knowledge.

StrikeIron is a CED Member.

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Inlet Technologies Launches Early Access Program for HDTV Encoding
Raleigh-based Inlet Technologies (www.inlethd.com) launched the Compass Early Access Program to help plot the course of HD encoding technology for the post-production, broadcast and IPTV markets. The program will give high-definition industry leaders access to the most advanced encoding solutions for Windows Media High-Definition content. The goal of the initiative is to create a group of partners and customers that can help guide the Inlet Fathom software encoding application.

Inlet Technologies provides professional encoding solutions for high-definition content creation and distribution. Inlet's Optimized Compression, Encoding and Analysis (OCEAN™) platform allows for real-time encoding of high-definition content for the post-production and broadcast markets. The company was chosen as a “People's Choice” Demo Company Award winner at CED's 2004 InfoTech Conference.

Inlet Technologies is a CED Member.

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Entrepreneurial Community Responds to CED/Inspire Challenge, Donates 50+ Tons of Food
CED and Inspire Pharmaceuticals challenged Triangle entrepreneurs to collect as much food as possible in November and early December for the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina. The initial goal was to collect 10,000 pounds of food by Dec. 8, but the final tally was nearly 12 times more than that: 117,408 pounds (over 50 tons) of food. The CED member companies that donated over 500 pounds to the food drive were Inspire Pharmaceuticals, Intersouth Partners, Serenex and Cato Research. A special thank you to these companies and to the dozens of other organizations and individuals who made this food drive such an enormous success. For more on the CED/Inspire Food Drive Challenge, read this Durham Herald-Sun article.

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Events Update

12/31

Second Application to Present Deadline for CED's Venture 2005

1/12

Technology Forum: The Entrepreneurial Climate - When and How to Start your Company

1/20

CED Information Session for Prospective Members

1/27

Engage: Finance

1/31

Biotechnology Forum: Partnering for Success