North Carolina’s life science community saw it all in 2015: billion-dollar deals, expansions, relocations, acquisitions, venture capital funding, an IPO, government grants, global accolades, a new pharmacy school and even two Nobel Prizes.

Several life science companies also received research grants from federal agencies and loans from NCBiotech to advance their research and product commercialization.

Highlights:

  • Research Triangle Park-based NovaTarg received $3.2 million in Small Business Innovation Research funding from the National Institutes of Health to help in its development of drugs to treat cancer, kidney disease and diabetes. NCBiotech helped jumpstart NovaTarg with a $30,000 loan in 2011.
  • Durham-based Viamet Pharmaceuticals won a $1.95 million grant from the Department of Defense to develop a topical antifungal agent for preventing and treating mold infections in soldiers with battlefield wounds. Viamet is advancing a broad portfolio of novel antifungal agents that promise greater selectivity, fewer side effects and better potency compared to currently available antifungal agents.
  • Research Triangle Park drug developer T3D Therapeutics received a $1.8 million research grant to advance the development of its clinical-stage drug for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.  The Small Business Innovation Research phase two grant came from the National Institute on Aging, a branch of the National Institutes of Health. NCBiotech helped position the company for the grant with two previous loans totaling $300,000.

The loans

NCBiotech awarded 77 loans and grants totaling $5.1 million to companies, universities and other organizations across the state during the first three quarters of the 2015 calendar year. The awards programs support life science research, entrepreneurship and technology commercialization, and lay the groundwork for major add-on funding.

Companies receiving loans included Rheomics, FLAG Therapeutics, G1 Therapeutics, Dignify Therapeutics, T3D Therapeutics, KindHeart, Kaio Therapy, NIRvana Sciences,Akros Medical, Phoundry Pharmaceuticals, Camras Vision, SynShark, Symmune Therapeutics, BaseTrace and Indexus Biomedical. More.

See more at:

http://www.ncbiotech.org/article/loans-grants-boost-nc-life-science-firms-2015/151311#sthash.5UfWPEpC.dpuf

For earlier stories in the 2015 review, see links appearing with this post at WTW.