By Frank

North Carolina manufacturing employment is on the upswing, a trend supported by new jobs in growing technology industries such as pharmaceuticals and aviation. The North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center detailed the findings in a new report released Monday released today. The center says total North Carolina manufacturing jobs increased in 2011 – the first increase in the state in 16 years. The job growth continued in 2012. The center says manufacturing accounts for 440,000 North Carolina jobs today. In rural parts of North Carolina, manufacturing accounts for 14 percent of total employment and $9.3 billion in annual wages, according...

Pfizer‘s (NYSE: PFE) $56 million offer to acquire Icagen (Nasdaq: ICGN) followed a mostly fruitless courtship dating back five years that ultimately saw the pharma giant beat out two others who vied for all or part of the pain drug company. Pfizer’s offer, which amounts to $6 per share, is now under challenge by some shareholders as inadquate. But Icagen’s years long search for an acquirer had proven unsuccessful until this spring when drug partner Pfizer finally reached out to gauge the Durham company’s interest in a pharmaceutical M&A deal. Details of events leading up to the July 20...

Salix Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: SLXP) needs another clinical study on its irritable bowel syndrome treatment meaning it could take two more years for the drug to secure regulatory approval. That’s two more years than the gastrointestinal therapeutics company planned for. Salix expected to get Food and Drug Administration approval for the drug Xifaxan in the first quarter. But in March, the FDA told Morrisville-based Salix that it would not approve Xifaxan for IBS. During a Monday conference call to discuss second quarter financial results, Salix CEO Carolyn Logan said that the FDA proposed and the company agreed to form an...

The growing prevalence of drug-resistant bacteria means a rise in so-called superbugs with no antibiotics to treat them.Cempra Pharmaceuticals aims to bring new antibacterial weapons to that fight. The Chapel Hill-based pharmaceutical company has two clinical-stage drug candidates, including one for MRSA infections, that would each address the growing problem of antimicrobial resistance. Cempra, founded in 2006, has raised $78 million in venture capital to date, including a $46 milllion series C round in 2009. The company’s financial backers includes Intersouth Partners, Quaker BioVentures, Aisling Capital, Teachers Private Capital and Devon Park Bioventures. Now Cempra is weighing options that...