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Local Tech Wire
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – , a startup focused on bacterial resistance to antibiotics, has signed a licensing agreement with UNC-CH for technology developed at the university.
Synereca is led by Scott Singleton, a professor at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. The licensing agreement for Synereca as a UNC spin-out covers research done by Singleton and is the first to be signed under a new UNC program
To be eligible for the Carolina Express License, companies must meet funding, business strategy and management experience benchmarks. UNC-CH wants to use the program to accelerate technology transfer to the private sector.
"We expect that Synereca is the first of many spin-out companies from Carolina research that will use the Carolina Express License," said Cathy Innes, director of the University’s , in a statement. "The agreement minimized the time and expense required for a start-up to negotiate with the University, with time and expense being two scarce commodities in the start-up world."
In addition to Singleton, Synereca’s management team includes veteran life science executive W. Bennett Love, who is vice president for business operations.
Stephen Bocckino, also a founder of the company, is a veteran life sciences researcher in the Triangle. He is vice president for preclinical research.
Clayton I. Duncan, the company chairman and a founder, is a veteran life science executive, having held leadership positions at several Triangle firms.
"The Carolina Express License is just one example of the ways the University empowers entrepreneurship from the faculty,” Singleton said in a statement. “This agreement represents a wonderful culmination of the developmental collaboration between faculty inventors at the University and the Research Triangle community’s strength and expertise in the pharmaceutical industry."
UNC-CH has spun out more than 40 companies over the past 15 years. The university holds some 500 patents.
