Regional News
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- Affinergy Awarded $3 Million in Federal Grants
- Horticultural Asset Management Lands $3.2 Million B Round
- Phase Bioscience Secures $1 Million Loan, Expands Headquarters
- Murdock Gives N.C. State $2 Million
- Inclinix Receives Patent for Expert System Platform
- Argolyn Bioscience Moving to Triangle
- Azure Capital Partners and Bridgescale Partners Acquire Neonova
- Ercole Biotech Sold to Oregon Drug Development Partner
- Targacept Upgrading Equipment with BB&T Loan
Affinergy Awarded $3 Million in
Federal Grants
Durham biotechnology startup Affinergy (www.affinergy.com),
developer of coatings to improve the performance of medical
devices such as catheters and hip joints, received $3 million
in federal Small Business Innovation Research grants. The
funding includes a Phase 2 grant for $2.05 million and four
Phase 1 grants totaling more than $1 million.
Affinergy is a CED member
Horticultural Asset Management Lands
$3.2 Million B Round
Horticultural Asset Management Inc. (www.moneygrowsontrees.com),
a Cary-based company that estimates landscaping values primarily
for the insurance and real estate industries, raised $3.2
million in Series B financing. The funds will be used to
expand commercial activity and promote products that provide
valuations, inspections and remedial services for trees
and shrubs.
Phase Bioscience Secures $1 Million
Loan, Expands Headquarters
Phase Bioscience Inc. (www.phasebio.com),
a Durham-based biotechnology company, closed a $1-million
secured equipment loan with Silicon Valley Bank and is moving to larger headquarters and laboratory facilities in Morrisville.
Phase Bioscience is a CED member.
Murdock Gives N.C. State $2 Million
Billionaire David Murdock donated $2 million to N.C. State
University (www.ncsu.edu)
to help create endowments for three faculty jobs at the
N.C. Research Campus (www.ncresearchcampus.net)
in Kannapolis. The gift will be matched with $1 million
from the N.C. Distinguished Professors Endowment Trust Fund,
and will be used to create new jobs for N.C. State's Fruit
and Vegetable Science Institute.
N.C. State University is a CED member.
Inclinix Receives Patent for Expert
System Platform
Wilmington-based Inclinix Inc. (www.inclinix.com),
an enrollment contract
research organization and provider of clinical trial recruitment
solutions,
received a patent for its Expert Systems Platform. The software
system guides interview questions for clinical trials. Inclinix
uses the system to determine if respondents meet criteria
for trial sponsors, which are primarily pharmaceutical companies.
Inclinix is a CED member.
Argolyn Bioscience Moving to Triangle
Argolyn Bioscience Inc. (www.argolyn.com),
a pharmaceutical company spun off from the Medical University
of South Carolina, is moving its corporate headquarters
from Charleston, S.C., to the Triangle. Argolyn is working
to develop drugs carried by peptides that can accurately
deliver medicine but break down quickly in the bloodstream.
The company will keep its research and development unit
at MUSC and in North Charleston, S.C. Much of Argolyn's
funding raised last year came from Durham venture capital
firm, Intersouth Partners.
Intersouth Partners is a CED member.
Azure Capital Partners and Bridgescale Partners
Acquire Neonova
Azure Capital Partners (www.azurecap.com) and
Bridgescale Partners (www.bridgescale.com) acquired
Morrisville-based NeoNova Network Services (www.neonova.net)
from Digitel, Inc. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
NeoNova is the leading Internet service provider for rural
telephone and cable service providers. The new company will
focus on continued transformation and expansion of technology
services for the country’s more than 2,000 independent communication
service providers.
NeoNova Network Services is a CED member.
Ercole Biotech Sold to Oregon Drug
Development Partner
AVI Biopharma (www.avibio.com,
Nasdaq: AVII), a Portland, Ore.-based biotech company, will
pay up to $7.5 million in stock for Morrisville’s Ercole
Bitoech (www.ercolebiotech.com) and will assume up to $1.5
million in its liabilities. The deal is expected to close
March 21. The companies have collaborated since 2006 on
drug candidates including a drug for Duchenne muscular dystrophy,
the most common type of the fatal disorder.
Ercole Biotech is a CED member.
Targacept Upgrading Equipment with
BB&T Loan
Targacept (www.targacept.com),
a Winston-Salem biopharmaceutical company developing treatments
for central nervous system disorders, received up to $5.3
million in loans from BB&T to upgrade its lab equipment.
Targacept has drug discovery partnerships with AstraZeneca
and GlaxoSmithKline.
Targacept is a CED member.