Jim Shamp

A month after its $10 million commitment to start a plant fungicide company, North Carolina’s groundbreaking AgTech Accelerator in Research Triangle Park has made a $5 million investment to establish a new animal health company. The venture development organization announced the new Series A investment into Skyline Vet Pharma, Inc., a startup that will in-license and develop drug delivery technologies aimed at improving veterinary treatment of companion animals – primarily dogs and cats. “Following the May 2016 launch of AgTech Accelerator, we have been searching for the best opportunities in the companion animal health space,” said John Dombrosky, CEO...

The Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM) is leading a $20 million effort to apply advanced manufacturing to regenerative medicine. The goal of the five-year program is to speed up the availability of replacement tissues and organs to patients. “We are excited to be at the forefront of this next frontier in regenerative medicine,” said Anthony Atala, M.D., director of WFIRM, which is part of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. “Just like the invention of the moving assembly line reduced the cost of cars and made them commonplace, the field of regenerative medicine must develop standardized manufacturing processes...

The numbers continue to climb for North Carolina’s life science sector, bringing new companies, high-paying jobs and opportunity statewide. We now have over 650 life science companies statewide that directly employ 63,000 people and account for 260,000 jobs overall, counting suppliers and support businesses. Life science companies provide $2.2 billion in state and local tax revenues. (WRAL TechWire reported on the initial findings contained in the report on Feb. 28) Roll it all up, and North Carolina’s life science sector creates $86 billion in total economic impact. That’s the main storyline in the newly published 2016 Evidence and Opportunity: Impact of...

​TransEnterix, a Morrisville medical device company that uses robotics to improve minimally invasive surgery, has expanded the clinical adoption of its Senhance Robotic Surgical System to include a full range of hernia repairs. Senhance is a multi-port robotic system that allows multiple arms to control instruments and an eye-sensing camera with haptic feedback, or the sense of touch. The system simulates laparoscopic motion familiar to experienced surgeons and features three-dimensional, high-definition vision technology. TransEnterix acquired Senhance, previously called ALF-X, in 2015 by purchasing the surgical robotics division of SOFAR S.p.A., an Italian health care company. The cash and stock...

Durham-based medical device developer Tryton Medical has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval to market the company’s Tryton Side Branch Stent for the treatment of coronary bifurcation lesions. Tryton Medical specializes in the development of stents for bifurcated lesions, to open clogged arteries in tricky spots where they form a “Y.” Coronary artery disease,the leading cause of death in the U.S. in both men and women, often results in the buildup of plaque at a site where one artery branches from another, technically known as a bifurcation. Current approaches to treating these lesions are time-consuming and complicated. As...

The North Carolina Biotechnology Center has announced that Pfizer has committed to providing funding  in the amount of $4 million which will enable the Center to establish and administer a  multi-year academic fellowship program to help advance North Carolina’s fast-growing expertise in gene therapy. The new program, to be managed by NCBiotech, will support distinguished postdoctoral fellowships in North Carolina university research laboratories providing advanced scientific training in gene therapy-related research. Absent or faulty proteins linked to genetic mutations cause numerous devastating diseases, making gene therapy an increasingly important treatment strategy. Pfizer’s portfolio in North Carolina has grown in...

​Chapel Hill clinical-stage pharmaceutical company Cempra got a much-needed boost when it lifted the lid on the data for its Phase 3 clinical trial examining the effectiveness of its lead drug candidate, Taksta. The news sent Cempra shares soaring. Shares traded at $4.22, up 34 percent, at midday, according to North Carolina Business News Wire.  Voila! Taksta, Cempra’s fusidic acid compound, is proving to be both safe and effective in the treatment of acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections. Actually, fusidic acid has a long history of safety and efficacy outside the United States, so it’s not a...

There’s good earth and there’s depleted dirt. And a lot of variation between the two extremes. Healthy soils are the foundation of global food production, host more than a quarter of the planet’s biodiversity, and play a critical role in the carbon cycle. Three experts on soil health will share their knowledge in a down-to-earth discussion on Wednesday, Feb. 22, at the next NC Ag Biotech Professional Forum at the North Carolina Biotechnology Center. The presenters include: Wayne Honeycutt, Ph.D., president and CEO, Soil Health Institute Sam Wilson, Ph.D., vice president, technology development, Verdesian Life Sciences Diane Wu, Ph.D.,...