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SCYNEXIS Raises $13.5 Million
Durham-based drug discovery company SCYNEXIS, Inc., (www.scynexis.com) secured $13.5 million in Series C-2 financing. The funding was led by Merial Limited and sanofi-aventis. SR One, GlaxoSmithKline's independent corporate healthcare venture capital fund, also participated. SCYNEXIS is a spin-off created by a team of researchers from the Triangle’s Aventis CropScience and is the primary research partner for animal health company Merial.

SCYNEXIS, Inc. is a CED member.

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Kryosphere Lands $1 Million Angel Investment
Kryosphere Inc. (www.kryosphere.com), a biostorage company in Durham, raised $1 million in angel investments and debt financing. The company, founded last year, plans to open its first location in Research Triangle Park in May. The facility will provide biorepository, logistical and management services and will house up to 5 million biological research samples at ultra-low temperatures.

Kryosphere Inc. is a CED member.

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AVI BioPharma Finalizes Merger
Portland, Ore.-based AVI BioPharma Inc.’s (www.avibio.com) has completed its acquisition of privately held Ercole Biotech Inc. (www.ercolebiotech.com) of Research Triangle Park. The two companies have collaborated on muscular dystrophy treatments since 2006.

Ercole Biotech is a CED member.

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NC Research Campus Core Lab to Open in April
The four-story core lab at the North Carolina Research Campus (www.ncresearchcampus.net) in Kannapolis will open in April. The lab will contain a DNA sequencing facility, micro-array facilities, mass spectrometry facilities and various specialized tools and laboratories to foster research in human nutrition.

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Quintiles to Provide Services in Japan
Durham’s Quintiles Transnational Corp. (www.quintiles.com) announced an agreement with Medca Japan to provide central laboratory services. Quintiles will have its own staff at the College of American Pathologists-certified laboratory in Saitama near Tokyo, which will support clinical trials in Japan.

Quintiles is a CED member.

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Greer Begins Phase 3 Trial for Allergy Drug
Lenoir-based Greer (www.greerlabs.com) is the first U.S. allergy company to initiate a Phase III trial for the oral administration of liquid standardized allergenic extracts. The company launched a Phase III trial for sublingual-oral immunotherapy for adults with rhinoconjunctivitis caused by short ragweed pollen. The trial focuses on reducing allergy symptoms and the need for anti-allergy medications during ragweed season.

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Durham, Raleigh Make Best Places to Live and Launch List
Fortune Small Business released its 100 Best Places to Live and Launch for 2008. Two Triangle cities made the top 20, confirming the region’s reputation as a great place for entrepreneurs to live and work. Durham ranked number 12 and Raleigh came in at number 20. Other North Carolina cities making the list were Charlotte (8), Asheville (41), Greensboro (50) and Winston-Salem (56).

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Near-Time, Purdue Launch Community for Workforce Innovation
RTP-based Near-Time, industry leader for on-demand enterprise 2.0 platform for cross organization collaboration, has partnered with the Purdue Center for Regional Development to launch the first nationwide community of regions focused on innovation and economic development. This partnership is a spinoff of the U.S. Labor Department's WIRED Initiative. The new nationwide community is accessible at www.wired-nation.net.

The Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development (WIRED) Initiative has seeded 39 regions, including NC’s Triad Region, across the country to focus on talent development to drive economic transformation in local regional economies. WIRED is the result of an initiative sponsored by the U.S. Labor Department, Employment and Training Administration. These regions have created hundreds of programs integrating education, workforce and economic development. The Purdue Center for Regional Development (PCRD) and Near-Time are jointly guiding the development of the WIRED-Nation community. The goal now is to accelerate innovation across the regions by sharing insights, information, and cross-regional collaboration on a national level.

Near-Time is also the platform for CED’s Startup247.com OnDemand Resource for Entrepreneurs.

Near-Time is a CED Member.

Events Update

9/09 Entrepreneurs Only Workshop™: Doing Your Due Diligence
9/12 CFO Roundtable: Raising Venture Capital
9/23 Entrepreneurs Only Workshop™: Valuation of Intellectual Property

 

What Members are Saying

"CED is a premiere catalyst for networking and access. CED offers one of the best available common grounds for bringing entrepreneurs of all backgrounds together." - Clay Dunnagan, VP of Business Development, Vital Source Technologies (also a FastTrac Tech instructor)