DURHAM, NC - Eleven-year-old, venture-backed drug discovery company Scynexis Inc. has raised $5.5 million, or 36 percent, of a targeted $15 million stock and debt offering to investors.

Nine investors have taken part in the offering to date, the first says in a new filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
(more…)

ORLANDO, Fla., December 15, 2011 – Layton Smith, Ph.D., assistant professor and director of drug discovery at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute’s Florida campus, has been awarded a Novo Nordisk Diabetes Innovation Award, valued at $477,500 over two years. The grant will further his research into a novel protein with the potential to improve the understanding of diabetes and further the development of new treatments.
(more…)

Morrisville, NC - Morrisville’s Oxygen Biotherapeutics will sell new shares of the company to an institutional investor, raising up to $7.5 million in the process.Oxygen (Nasdaq: OXBT) has dealt with some corporate issues lately. The company terminated Chris Stern as CEO for alleged inaccuracies on his resumé, was warned by Nasdaq because its audit committee was out of compliance, and removed its shares from the Swiss Exchange. But interim CEO Michael B. Jebsen is looking forward, not back.
(more…)

ATLANTA, GA - The National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) is a non-profit science institute that works closely with NASA’s Human Research Program. NSBRI’s mission is to fund research and technology development to enable safe and productive human space flight (www.nsbri.org).  NSBRI has launched a new program called SMARTCAP that awards $100,000 to small companies (<500 employees) for developing or validating technology or software solutions that can work in the space environment, mitigate a biomedical or job performance challenge for astronauts on long-duration space missions, and make an impact on a target population on Earth.  A complete description of the program may be found at www.smartcap.org.
(more…)

 ATLANTA, GA - NorDiag ASA, a Norwegian biotechnology company, has picked metro Atlanta for its North American headquarters. NorDiag estimates that its Alpharetta facility will create 10 to 20 high-paying jobs over the next three years.

“NorDiag’s decision to locate its North American Headquarters in North Fulton speaks volumes about our community’s pro-business environment and strong economic climate,” said Al Nash, Executive Director Progress Partners, an economic development initiative of The Greater North Fulton Chamber of Commerce. “I would like to thank our Progress Partners investors and our economic development partners at the State and Metro Atlanta Chamber for making this project possible.”

NorDiag was founded in 2003, and is headquartered in Oslo, Norway.
(more…)

Atlanta, GA - The winners of Southeast BIO’s (SEBIO) Southeast Deal of the Year awards were announced in a ceremony held at its 13th Annual Investor Forum in Durham, North Carolina on November 3rd. Companies honored at the fifth annual awards ceremony competed in the following categories:

• Initial Funding
• Venture Capital Transaction
• Strategic Transaction
• Strategic Investment

The winners were Sebacia, Inc., Chimerix, Inc., ArtusLabs, and Liquidia Technologies. (more…)

ORLANDO, FL - A Central Florida initiative to support local entrepreneurs has selected two high-technology companies as the winners of its first $200,000 seed-capital sweepstakes.

The Florida IDEA Grant Program chose Pandora Genomics LLC of Orlando and Rillip Inc. of Edgewater to receive grants of as much as $50,000 each.

The companies — one a biotech startup, the other an online data-mining firm — will also receive in-kind services such as accounting, marketing and legal assistance valued at as much as $50,000 each, program officials said this week.
(more…)

ATLANTA, GA - Nearly 400 people attended Southeast BIO’s (SEBIO) Thirteenth Annual Investor Forum, the region’s premier life sciences conference, held on November 2-3, 2011. Venture capitalists and angel investors connected with executives, life science entrepreneurs, university representatives and industry professionals in Durham, North Carolina to discuss opportunities for growth of the life sciences industry in the coming years.

“SEBIO continues to be the forum that draws all of the key members of the Southeast’s life science ecosystem: investors, entrepreneurs, technology transfer professionals and the life science business community come together in support of companies from across the Southeast,” said Aaron Davidson, Managing Director of H.I.G. Capital, Co-Head of H.I.G. BioVentures and newly elected Chair of SEBIO. “The Investor Forum provides a very efficient opportunity for the emerging leaders of tomorrow’s biopharmaceutical, medical technology and diagnostic companies to network with the other leaders of our ecosystem.”

Fred Eshelman, Founder and Executive Chairman of PPD, kicked off the two-day “Data Driven Deals” event by sharing highlights of his 20 year voyage of taking PPD from a one person start-up to the $3.9 billion buyout offer.

Jim Mullen, CEO of Patheon, closed the conference by offering his insights on how today’s pressures on the big pharma business model will impact cost structures in the future. The attendees were given a treat when North Carolina State Treasurer Janet Cowell unveiled the $35 million “Accelerator” investment fund, targeted for life sciences start-ups, at the event’s closing luncheon.

Twenty-eight of the most promising life sciences companies in the Southeast presented their funding pitches to representatives of more than 30 venture funds from across the U.S. The more advanced companies who have completed at least one round of institutional financing presented on the SEBIO MAIN/Stage. Twenty of the companies, as participants in the EARLY/Stage program or BIO/Plan Competition, were the beneficiaries of expert mentoring from teams made up of active venture capitalists and angel investors, entrepreneurs and managers, and service providers with relevant start-up expertise.

The EARLY/Stage program, geared for the best new initial investment opportunities in the region, allowed participants to introduce their companies to and seek advice from onsite advisory teams, who then chose the four best to participate in the EARLY/Stage Company Shootout on November 2. The selected participants were Arbovax, Inc. (Raleigh, NC), Claro Scientific, LLC (St. Petersburg, FL), Clinical Sensors, Inc. (Chapel Hill, NC) and NellOne Therapeutics, Inc. (Oak Ridge, TN).

Claro Scientific, LLC was selected as the winner of the EARLY/Stage Shootout by a panel of celebrity judges representing four venture capital funds. Claro Scientific is developing a portable, low cost, real time point of care diagnostic system for medical and research applications. The members of the Claro Scientific management team include Thomas McLain, CEO, and Luis Garcia-Rubio, President and CSO.

SEBIO also announced the winner of its fifth annual BIO/Plan Competition, which brings forward some of the most promising new technologies from the region’s research organizations. Four final competitors (CureSwitch, LLC, University of Florida; Infusense, LLC, University of Tennessee Health Science Center; Transcatheter Valve Technologies, Emory University; and ViaMune, Inc., University of Georgia) were selected from ten semifinalists who underwent a rigorous mentoring process over the past four months to develop an executable business strategy and associated written development plan.

The winner of the 2011 BIO/Plan Competition is Transcatheter Valve Technologies (TVT), a project developed at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. TVT is a percutaneous mitral valve replacement technology. The principals associated with TVT include Muralidhar Padala, Inventor, and James Greene, Industry Consultant.

The winning TVT mentoring team includes Bob Crutchfield, Harbert Venture Partners, John Perchorowicz, Triage Masters, and Harold Shlevin, Enterprise Innovation Institute at Georgia Tech.

The 2012 Southeast BIO Investor Forum will be held October 31 – November 1, 2012 at the Breakers Resort in Palm Beach, Florida. Further details will be posted on the SEBIO website (www.sebio.org).

RALEIGH, NC - Salix Pharmaceuticals, Ltd. and Oceana Therapeutics, LLC today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement whereby Salix will acquire all of the outstanding stock of Oceana Therapeutics, Inc., a privately–held global provider of gastroenterology and urology therapeutics, for $300 million in cash. The transaction is subject to customary conditions to closing, including U.S. anti–trust approval, and is expected to close in December 2011.
(more…)

JOHNSON CITY, TN - RxBio Inc. RxBio Inc.Latest from The Business JournalsAnti-radiation drug gets federal boostFive more Memphis firms receive grantsCeNeRx BioPharma raises M to test depression drugFollow this company has received a $15 million federal contract from a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services U.S. Department of Health and Human ServicesLatest from The Business JournalsDaVita expects federal inquiryDaVita expects federal inquiry on drug paymentUMKC-led group gets M to help adults with disabilities get jobsFollow this company’ entity that will allow the company to continue development of its anti-radiation drug Rx100.

If the development is successful, Rx100 will be available to be administered up to 72 hours after acute radiation exposure. Other radiation treatment drugs have to be administered 24 hours after exposure. According to a company statement, no drug that can be administered in that time frame has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The contract’s base is $15 million, but it could be worth as much as $24 million for the company in the next two years.
(more…)