Frank Vinlaun

As Medicon Valley‘s visitors introduced themselves to their Research Triangle Park hosts, members of the Scandinavian delegation took care to note whether they speak Danish, Swedish or both. Medicon Valley is the life sciences cluster in Northern Europe, encompassing eastern Denmark and southwest Sweden. The cluster, spanning the Oresund Strait, includes 4 million inhabitants; 10 universities; 14,000 univeristy researchers; 32 hospitals and 450 companies and seven science parks. But although Medicon Valley has firmly established itself as a European sciences hub, the region has always cast its eyes for opportunities beyond Europe. For two days, those eyes were set...

GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK) is not giving up finding a role for enlarged prostate drug Avodart as a prostate cancer treatment. A study published Tuesday in The Lancet suggests that Avodart, also called dutasteride, could slow prostate cancer’s progression in men who have low-risk prostate cancer under active surveillance. But an editorial also published in The Lancet disagrees with the conclusions of the GSK-funded study. British drugmaker GSK, which has its U.S. headquarters in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, had been trying to expand Avodart’s approval beyond the BPH indication. Avodart works by blocking enzymes that promote prostate growth. The drug...

Drug developer Curaxis Pharmaceutical (PINK: CURX) aims to find a drug partner this year who could help the cash-strapped company resume clinical trials on its experimental Alzheimer’s disease treatment. Curaxis Chairman and interim CEO Timothy Wright said in a letter to shareholders that the company is focused on attracting bridge financing between $1 million and $2 million in the first quarter. Beyond that, the Raleigh-based company wants to find a strategic partner by the third quarter to finance the study of drug candidate Memryte in phase 2b or phase 3 clinical trials. Curaxis, which was formerly known as Voyager,...

North Carolina biotechnology company Precision BioSciences has secured a patent victory for its genome engineering technology. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has rejected claims from French company Cellectis that alleges that Precision is infringing on a Cellectis patent. The USPTO decision rejects Cellectis’ claims as being anticipated by or obvious in the context of already publicly available information. The claims stem from a Cellectis lawsuit filed in 2011 against Durham-based Precision regarding Cellectis’ ’372 patent. The Precision and Cellectis patent dispute dates back several years. In 2008, Cellectis filed claims on two in-licensed patents, claims that the patent...

Multiple sclerosis patients using Biogen Idec (Nasdaq:BIIB) drug Tysabri now have access to the first test that can help determine their risk for developing a rare but potentially fatal brain infection that affects some patients using the drug. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday cleared the blood test which can help doctors determine whether MS patients as well as Crohn’s disease patients, who are also prescibed the drug, could develop progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy, or PML. PML has no cure. The risk for the infection means that Tysabri carries a black box warning. The FDA also granted Weston,...

The vaccine biotech firm Medicago (TSX:MDG) has developed technology that can turn tobacco leaves into vaccines quickly and inexpensively, and its new North Carolina site stands ready for influenza vaccine production. But when Medicago unveiled its new Research Triangle Park facility last November amid great fanfare, CEO Andew Sheldon said he couldn’t disclose Medicago’s other vaccine targets. We now know at least one of them: rabies. Quebec, Canada-based Medicago has completed initial studies that move the company toward a new vaccine for rabies. The company could start clinical trials of the rabies vaccine candidate later this year. “The rabies...

Regenerative medicine company KeraNetics, whose biomaterials research into healing damaged tissue is already in the U.S. military’s sights, is now raising a targeted $7 million in equity financing. The Winston-Salem-based company has raised $4.7 million from 26 investors so far in a securities sale that began on Dec. 30, according to securities filings. The offering is a mix of equity, options and warrants. KeraNetics managing director Kim Westmoreland did not return a call seeking comment. KeraNetics is based on technology developed at Wake Forest University‘s Institute for Regenerative Medicine. The company works with keratins, a class of fibrous structural...

DARA BioSciences (NASDAQ:DARA), which earlier this week acquired cancer therapeutics firm Oncogenerix, has made yet another deal, this one an agreement to raise $1.7 million in a private placement. DARA has reached a definitive agreement with an unnamed institutional investor to sell preferred stock valued at $1.7 million and warrants to purchase 619,308 shares of common stock at $1.31 per share. The warrants expire five years from the date they are issued. DARA expects to close the transaction on January 20. The securities are being offered in accordance with a shelf registration statement that was declared effective last April....

Stem cell technology company Aldagen, which last year withdrew initial public stock offering plans that could have raised up to $80 million to finance research and development and clinical trials, is now raising money in much smaller increments. The Durham-based company is trying to raise $645,004, according to an amended securities filing — $120,000 more than the $525,004 mixed offering of debt, options and warrants that launched last September. A total of 13 investors have participated so far raising $585,004, the filing shows. Aldagen is developing regenerative cell therapies for cardiovascular conditions. The company’s technology isolates specific adult stem...