First Flight Venture Center (FFVC), a technology incubator and Innovalyst, a life sciences consulting firm committed to catalyzing innovation, today announced an innovative partnership to provide strategic and technical support to life science entrepreneurs in Research Triangle Park. Innovalyst’s ICaN (Intellectual Capital Network) will provide fit for purpose teams of industrial experts to FFVC’s life science and medical device companies.
“This foundational partnership between FFVC and Innovalyst represents a powerful pledge on behalf of FFVC to the life science community in the Research Triangle Park. We are committed to expand our life science focus and have augmented our wet labs by more than 50 percent in the last 18 months.” Explained Dr. Andrew Schwab, President, First Flight Venture Center.
Ever cringe when you have your eye examined and the doctor puffs air at your eye? It makes my eye twitch just thinking about it. That puff of air tests for glaucoma symptoms. Glaucoma is the second leading cause of visual disability and blindness in the world. It wasn’t until my mom was diagnosed with glaucoma that I took notice.
Aerie Pharmaceuticals Inc., a Duke University spinoff developing a treatment for glaucoma, has raised $30 million in a series B round of venture-capital financing. With R&D operations located in Alexandria Innovation Center, one of the The Research Triangle Park’s five incubators, Aerie Pharmaceuticals is a biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of medical innovations in ophthalmology.
Aerie expects to use proceeds from this financing to fund continued development of Aerie’s broad product portfolio in glaucoma and advance the company’s lead product, AR-12286, a first-in-class selective Rho-kinase inhibitor, into Phase 3 trials by the end of 2011.
“We are excited about the potential for Aerie’s compounds to offer multiple, improved and differentiated treatment options for millions of patients suffering from this widespread, degenerative disease,” said Tom van Haarlem, MD, President and CEO of Aerie.
The company is also pursuing several other pipeline programs also aimed at glaucoma therapy.
“Despite the fact that glaucoma is a progressive disease, there has not been a drug with a new mechanism of action approved in the glaucoma field since the mid-nineties,” said Dr. Anand Mehra of Sofinnova. “Patients often need several drugs to control their disease, and physicians have limited options with these older mechanisms. We believe that AR-12286′s new MOA, strong efficacy, excellent tolerability, and once daily dosing can provide real value to patients at risk of losing their vision.”
RTP is proud to be home to incubators such as Alexandria Innovation Center that provide the wet lab space that allows R&D start-ups such as Aerie to thrive. We are even more proud that Aerie Pharmaceuticals is a home grown company, spun out of Duke University, that RTP helped to nuture in order to commercialize its medical innovations. What a great success story that proves that RTP truly is, “the future of great ideas.”
Today, North Carolina’s biotechnology industry unveiled the newest addition to the thriving life sciences community in the State. This afternoon, Gov. Bev Perdue, other politicians, and a variety of industry leaders joined former Gov. Jim Hunt at the dedication of the NC Biotechnology Center’s James B. Hunt, Jr. leadership Annex. The annex is a 20,000 SF addition to the NC Biotechnology Center’s headquarters in RTP.
Rendering of the NC Biotechnology Center Addition
Hunt was a driving force behind the launch of the center in the 1980s along with MCNC (formerly known as the Microelectronics Center of North Carolina), the North Carolina School of Science and Math and other high-tech initiatives in RTP.
According to figures from the NC Biotechnology Center, the biotech industry is responsible for:
$1.92 billion in taxes to state and local government
57,000 jobs at biotech companies
Another 170,000 jobs linked to the biotech sector
Average salaries of almost $75,000 for biotech jobs
Annex Dedication at the NC Biotechnology Center
“For twenty-five years, the state has invested in biotechnology research, education and business development through Biotechnology Center funding programs and collaborations,” said Robert A. Ingram, CEO of Hatteras Ventures, and chairman of the Center’s Building Committee.
The addition will support a number of new job-creation initiatives in biotechnology leadership, entrepreneurship, K-12 education, workforce training, business development and university research programs. The expanded facility will continue to play host to an estimated 35,000 visitors annually.
Contributing Partners
Construction and planning of the $10.4 million addition, spanning several years, was kick-started with support from the following institutions:
Triangle University Center for Advanced Studies Inc., through its parent organization, the Research Triangle Foundation of North Carolina
North Carolina General Assembly
a $1 million gift from the Biogen Idec Foundation’s Transformational Grants in Science Education initiative
The Duke Energy Foundation
PPD
A video of the ribbon-cutting ceremony:
North Carolina has the nation’s third largest biotech cluster, according to numerous studies, with most of those companies operating in and around RTP.
Canadian company Medicago announced today that it will locate new a new operation in the Durham County portion of The Research Triangle Park. The vaccine developer plans to be fully operational by July 2011.
Alexandria Realty will develop and lease 30,000 square feet of lab space and scale-up facility as well as 30,000 square feet of greenhouse space to the company. Alexandria Real Estate is working Clark Nexsen Architects and BE&K construction to help design and build the proposed complex in RTP and the development team is working very closely with Durham agencies on permitting issues to allow the project to meet a very aggressive project timetable. It is estimated that the project investment will be $38 million, and Medicago plans to hire approximately 85 workers over a two year period. Salaries will vary by job, but the annual average wage for the new jobs will be $50,229, not including benefits.
The project to bring Medicago to the Research Triangle was made possible in part by a $128,000 grant from One North Carolina Fund.
Reception After Announcement
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The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, awarded Medicago a $21 million research grant to improve the process of making large quantities of H1N1 vaccine by using plant-based technology. Medicago uses tobacco leaves to produce its flu vaccines. Medicago said it will scale up and automate its processes to produce 10 million doses a month of influenza vaccines – with the potential for further expansion in the future.
Check out this new YouTube video taped at the BIO 2010 conference in Chicago, highlighting NC as a world leader in the biotechnology and life sciences industries. Special kudos to the NC Biotechnology Center for putting together such a quality video!
Research in Motion, the maker of BlackBerry smart phones, plans to open a research and development office in Raleigh, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill figure out how to stop infecting bacteria in their tracks and RTI International looks for new business opportunities with the help of a new division and a hire.
Research in Motion Selects the Research Triangle Region
Research in Motion, the Canadian maker of BlackBerry smart phones, confirmed plans to open a research and development office in Raleigh, but provided few details.
The company has long had an eye on the Research Triangle Park area. State documents show RIM filed paperwork to do business in North Carolina in February 2002 and kept it updated. In December, company recruiters interviewed potential hires at an RTP job fair that attracted telecommunications workers who already lost their jobs or fear layoffs. Nortel Networks and IBM have shed many jobs and Sony Ericsson recently announced it would shut down its RTP operations, where more than 400 are employed.
In a response to questions, the company issued a prepared statement that read, “Raleigh is a great fit for RIM given its highly skilled work force and proximity to many excellent academic institutions.”
Last year, RIM reported $11 billion in sales. Analysts expect the company to generate $15 billion in revenue this year.
In other company news:
GlaxoSmithKline, the British drugmaker that has its U.S. headquarters in RTP, has decided to finance an educational documentary about eating. GSK makes alli, an over-the-counter pill to lose weight.
Speculations that Biogen Idec may prepare to look for a buyer arose after James Mullen, chief executive of the Boston-based biotech company, announced he would step down. Biogen’s multiple sclerosis drugs Avonex and Tysabri are made in RTP.
PeopleClick, a Raleigh software company, agreed to be sold for $100 million.
Research at UNC Figure out how Bacteria Walk
Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill figured out how some bacteria move around in the body to spread infections. Just one atom makes the difference. The atom plays a key role in how the bacteria grow tiny legs and coordinate their movement.
Blocking the atom stops the roving bacteria in their tracks.
The discovery could lead to the development of new medicines to prevent infections.
RTI International Looks to Expand
RTI International, a large research institute in RTP that snaps up government contracts worth millions, is looking to boost its chances to attract business with the help of a new division and a hire.
Less than a year after buying MasiMax, RTI turned the health communication and marketing firm in Rockville, Md., into a new division. MasiMax employees research and analyze complex health information and translate it for target audiences, such as health professionals, researchers, policymakers or the general public.
RTI also hired Bradley Peganoff as vice president of government and corporate relations. Peganoff joins RTI from the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute, where he was in charge of generating revenue, raising policymakers’ awareness of the institute and cultivating academic and industry collaborations.
It’s not the tallest, but it may be the highest outdoor pine tree in the Research Triangle area this holiday season–and highly symbolic to boot.
The tree is a five-foot loblolly pine grown by North Carolina State University specialists as part of a massive genetic improvement project.
This research tree was an ideal specimen to hoist the four stories into the sky and fasten to a steel beam in a traditional “topping out” ceremony for a $10.4 million addition to the North Carolina Biotechnology Center building.
Biotechnology is the use of living cells and their molecules to solve problems and make useful products. And the loblolly pines being grown and tested at N.C. State incorporate technologies that can help scientists detect and select specimens with beneficial genetic characteristics such as disease resistance.
An ironworker from Roanoke Valley Steel, the Halifax County company that supplied the beams for the project, fastened the tree to the structure. Typical of such events, the tree is likely to remain in place for several weeks until roofers remove it.
The general contractor, Skanska, expects to employ as many as 200 people on the 20,000-square-foot addition, to be completed in the fall of 2010.
First Flight Venture Center (FFVC), a technology incubator and Innovalyst, a life sciences consulting firm committed to catalyzing innovation, today announced an innovative partnership to provide strategic and technical support to life science entrepreneurs in Research Triangle Park. Innovalyst’s ICaN (Intellectual Capital Network) will provide fit for purpose teams of industrial experts to FFVC’s life science and medical device companies.
