NC Biotech Center to host showcase for eight ag biotech statrtups

Leaders of eight fast-emerging North Carolina agricultural biotechnology companies will pitch their wares to investors and other interested observers Oct. 10 at the 2013 Ag Biotech Entrepreneurial Showcase.

North Carolina is home to more than 80 ag biotech companies, including headquarters and installations for five of the world’s largest: BASF, Bayer CropScience, Monsanto, Syngenta and DuPont Pioneer.

Most of the state’s ag biotech firms, however, are entrepreneur-driven newcomers. Some of them are highlighted in the North Carolina Biotechnology Center’s 2013 Agricultural Bioscience Company and Entrepreneurial Profile System (AgBIOCEPS). That portfolio represents an aggregate investment opportunity of approximately $29 million.

Besides shining a spotlight on nearly 10 percent of the state’s ag biotech companies, this daylong networking and intelligence-gathering event at NCBiotech will also feature panel discussions on technology transfer and ag biotech capital formation.

“This event underlines the fact that we’re using the tools of biotechnology for agricultural R&D in North Carolina more fervently than anywhere else in the world,” said Paul Ulanch, Ph.D., MBA, executive director of NCBiotech’s Biotechnology Crop Commercialization Center.

“North Carolina is the center of the action because we’ve been so successful at merging the state’s two most significant economic sectors – agriculture and biotech. Great research universities, outstanding commercial partnering and the world’s first and most comprehensive state-supported Biotech Center are primary reasons for our leadership. And all will be represented at this Showcase.”

Neal Gutterson, Ph.D., president and CEO of Mendel Biotechnology, will deliver the keynote address on ag biotech entrepreneurship.

Amanda Cashin, Ph.D., vice president for life science with Alexandria Real Estate Equities, will serve as Master of Ceremonies.

Companies to be showcased at the forum include: