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Apax Partners, L.P. to Acquire Majority Ownership Interest in Spectrum Laboratory Network
Greensboro-based Triad Laboratory Alliance (www.spectrumlab.com), LLC d/b/a Spectrum Laboratory Network, a leading regional provider of clinical laboratory and disease screening services, and Apax Partners, L.P. (www.apax.com), one of the world's leading private equity investment groups, announced that funds advised by Apax Partners will acquire a majority ownership interest in Spectrum. The transaction is expected to close by the end of the first quarter of 2006.

In conjunction with the transaction, Moses Cone Health System, one of the health systems that founded Spectrum in 1998, will retain a significant ownership position in the company, as well as representation on its board of directors. Spectrum's current management staff will be maintained in their areas of responsibility.

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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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Morrisville Biotech Picks Florida Firm to Supply Drug
Morrisville-based BioDelivery Sciences International (BDSI, www.biodeliverysciences.com) has chosen Florida-based Aveva Drug Delivery Systems to manufacture supplies of its cancer pain drug, Bema Fentanyl. Aveva will make supplies of BDSI's Bema Fentanyl drug for upcoming phase III clinical trials, usually the last stage of human testing. BDSI also has contracted with Aveva to handle commercial manufacturing of Bema Fentanyl if the drug wins U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Bema Fentanyl is a reformulation of the approved narcotic fentanyl into what BDSI calls an oral adhesive disc. BDSI also released results of a 12-patient study that showed its drug was absorbed by the body more efficiently than Actiq, a fentanyl lozenge that is the current market leader among fast-dissolving fentanyl products in treating severe cancer pain. BDSI says the market potential for Bema Fentanyl is $250 million in annual sales. Actiq produced 2004 sales of $345 million and its maker, Cephalon Inc., has projected 2005 sales of $390 million to $420 million.

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3Dsolve Inc. Completes Simulation-Based Courseware for US Naval Submarine Learning Center
Cary-based 3Dsolve Inc. (www.3dsolve.com), a simulation learning company that creates realistic, interactive, and collaborative simulation learning solutions for government, military, and corporate applications, has completed the development of the first phase of simulation-based courseware for the Submarine On-Board Training Department (SOBT) of the US Naval Submarine Learning Center (SLC) in Groton, Connecticut. SOBT is responsible for coordinating the efforts of six submarine training sites, creating and maintaining the US Navy's submarine training vision, obtaining budget resources for individual training, creating career paths for all submariners, leading efforts to improve performance and overseeing and administering the submarine rating-exam process.

The simulation-based e-learning materials were created to instruct Los Angeles-class attack submarine personnel in Force Protection and Anti-Terrorism (FP/AT) procedures for in-port security. Using the laptop computers already deployed on US submarines, students are now able to review and practice critical security procedures while still at sea. In this first phase of development, 3Dsolve has delivered a set of simulation-based scenarios that provide instruction in security procedures for the exterior environment around the submarine. In the next phase of development, already underway, new scenarios are being developed that take place inside the submarine itself.

3Dsolve is a CED member.

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Labcorp® Licenses Arcturus’ Technology for Characterization of Tumor Cells of Unknown Primary Origin
Burlington-based Laboratory Corporation of America® Holdings (LabCorp®) (www.LabCorp.com), an industry leader in oncology testing as well as provider of clinical assays ranging from blood analyses to HIV and genomic testing, has entered into an agreement with Arcturus Bioscience, Inc. to license its technology for cancer of unknown primary origin (CUP). Terms of the multi-year agreement were not disclosed.

CUP, a 92 gene PCR-based technology for the classification of 39 tumor types, has a reported incidence of approximately three to ten percent of all cancer patients in the US, corresponding to approximately 50,000 patients per year who present with a biopsy proven tumor. It is one of the top ten most common cancer diagnoses and the fourth most common cause of cancer mortality. Even utilizing modern pathologic and imaging procedures, the frequency of detection of the origin of the tumor site remains low. Less than 20 percent of CUP patients have the site of origin identified, leaving the remaining patients undiagnosed on completion of evaluation.

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Argos Therapeutics and DC Bio Corp. Announce New Clinical Trial to Begin for Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia
Durham-based Immunotherapy pioneer Argos Therapeutics (www.argostherapeutics.com) in conjunction with Toronto-based DC Bio Corp., announced that a clinical trial for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is scheduled to begin in 2006 using Argos’s proprietary RNA-loaded dendritic cell vaccine technology. The investigator-sponsored Phase I/II study will be conducted at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. McMaster University received a $573,000 grant from the Ontario Cancer Research Network (OCRN) to conduct the clinical trial.

According to officials for Argos, this is the first vaccine of its kind for a hemotologic cancer. The Argos approach differs fundamentally from other cancer vaccines in that it targets tumor antigens unique to each patient, circumventing the difficult challenge of needing to be able to know the identity of and characterize each of those antigens. This technology is applicable to all types of cancer and allows expansion into new indications without reinventing the manufacturing process each time.

Argos Therapeutics is a CED member.

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Events Update

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