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Charlotte-based PACEL to Acquire World Wide Personnel Service Inc.
Charlotte-based PACEL (www.pacel.com), a provider of human resource software and services for small and medium-sized businesses, will acquire World Wide Personnel Service of Maine Inc., a professional employer organization. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

World Wide has averaged revenue of $11 to $12 million annually and profits of $500,000. The company currently services 80 clients. With the completion of the acquisition, PACEL will have expanded to serve the majority of the eastern seaboard states.

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U.S. Venture Capital Fundraising Grows 16% in Third Quarter
According to new statistics from the Dow Jones’s VentureOne, U.S. venture-capital fund raising grew 16% in the third quarter, compared with the previous year. Overall, venture capital firms completed 27 deals worth $5.91 billion. While the number of funds was about the same as a year ago, their average size grew considerably, continuing a recent trend.

The firm said that more than 30% of the funds that have closed so far this year have been in the $250-$499 million range, up 20% from last year. Another 5% are between $500-$999 million, the most funds of that size completed since 2001.

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NewGen Technologies to Merge with Prolong International
NewGen Technologies (www.nwgntech.com/), a Charlotte-based producer of biofuels that use technology to produce a more complete combustion, has signed an agreement to merge with Prolong International, a consumer products holding company based in California.

Current NewGen shareholders will own approximately 93.6% of the new company, with the balance owned by current Prolong shareholders. Additional terms were not disclosed.

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Constella Group Awarded $42.3 Million Contract
Durham-based Constella Group (www.constellagroup.com), which provides a range of health services to private and government clients, has won a $42.3 million contract to assist the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences with clinical research studies over the next 10 years. Constella will oversee study planning and development, facilitation of regulatory processes, subject sampling and recruitment, oversight and monitoring of patient treatments and lifestyle interventions, questionnaire administration, collection and testing of both environmental and biological samples, medical record abstraction, tracing and follow-up, data management, biostatistical analysis, bioinformatics and reporting.

Constella had several partners in securing the contract: Duke University Health System, UNC Health Care, Chapel Hill-based contract research organization Rho Inc., and a number of clinical and environmental testing laboratories.

Constella Group is a CED member.

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Boston Scientific to Collaborate with Affinergy on Novel Cardiovascular Stent Coatings
RTP-based Affinergy, Inc., a Duke University spinout with a proprietary site-specific biological delivery system, recently signed a collaboration agreement with Boston Scientific (www.bostonscientific.com) to investigate new coatings for cardiovascular stents. Boston Scientific is a worldwide developer, manufacturer, and marketer of medical devices whose products are used in a broad range of interventional medical specialties.

Boston Scientific has a long history as the innovation and market share leader in cardiovascular markets. Combined with Affinergy’s coatings and peptide linker systems, the collaboration will make a critical different and can positively affect orthopedic and cardiovascular patients’ lives. Affinergy is a CED member.

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Qualyst Signs Commercialization Deal with Japanese Company
Tokyo-based SC BioSciences Corporation (www.scbio.co.jp/eng/), a provider of innovative life science discovery and development solutions in Japan, and RTP-based Qualyst, Inc. (www.qualyst.com), a company that specializes in the development and commercialization of novel and proprietary absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion (ADME) products, announced an alliance in which SC BioSciences will act as Qualyst’s exclusive agent for commercialization of Qualyst’s proprietary B-CLEAR® system in Japan. Financial details were not disclosed.

B-CLEAR® is an in vitro sandwich-cultured hepatocyte system for the assessment of hepatobiliary disposition, biliary clearance and drug transport. Use of B-CLEAR® early in compound research can accelerate development and significantly reduce expenditures compared to testing in whole animal models. B-CLEAR® offers research organizations the ability to investigate the role of specific transporters in the hepatobiliary disposition of a compound and assess the potential for adverse interactions.

Qualyst is a CED member.

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Durham Entrepreneur Named One of BusinessWeek’s Top 25 Entrepreneurs Under 25
Durham entrepreneur Ryan Allis has been named by BusinessWeek Magazine as one of its Top 25 Entrepreneurs Under 25. Allis is the CEO of Durham-based Broadwick Corp (www.broadwick.com). Founded in 2003, Broadwick has 21 employees and over 3150 customers for its web-based email marketing software IntelliContact (www.intellicontact.com) including companies like Super 8 Motel, International Paper and Re/Max.

Allis has also been featured on ABC News and in Investors’ Business Daily, Entrepreneur Magazine, Young Money Magazine, and CosmoGirl for his businesses and for his book Zero to One Million: How To Build a Company to $1 Million in Sales, which was published in 2003. Allis is also a well-known speaker on entrepreneurship and was recently a speaker at the Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization 2005 Conference in Orlando.

Broadwick is a CED member.

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P4 Inks Agreement with Fortune 500 Company CDW
P4 Performance Management (www.p4performance.com), an IT and communications selective outsourcing solutions provider for enterprises, has signed an agreement with CDW to join the CDW SolutionEdge™ program.

CDW, a Fortune 500 provider of technology solutions to businesses, government, educational and healthcare institutions, recently launched the CDW SolutionEdge™ program to join forces and strategically align themselves with solution providers such as P4. Under the agreement, P4 will provide their broad range of services to their customers, while CDW will offer those customers access to the industry’s largest in-stock inventories.

P4 is a CED member.

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Events Update

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