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 NCBIO and its Advanced Medical Technologies Center Planning Partners have retained J. Greg Davis, former President of Guidant Japan, to lead the consortiums planning efforts for a new North Carolina Advanced Medical Technologies Center. Davis, who has more than twenty years experience in the medical technologies industry, currently lives in Chapel Hill.
"Greg Davis is a perfect choice to lead our advanced medical technologies planning effort," said Sam Taylor, President of NCBIO. "We are truly fortunate to have Greg on board and all of us in the consortium are looking forward to working with him to make the proposed North Carolina Advanced Medical Technologies Center a reality."
Davis served in various executive capacities at Guidant Corporation from the time it was spun out of Eli Lilly in 2002 until its acquisition by Abbott and Boston Scientific in 2006. Davis holds an MBA from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and a bachelors' degree in engineering from the University of Minnesota.
Davis was selected by the consortium's executive committee from a field of highly competitive candidates. "I'm delighted to have this opportunity to work with all the members of North Carolina's advanced medical technologies community plan for this new center," said Davis. "North Carolina already has a strong core of medical technology companies. I think that with the Advanced Medical Technologies Center, we will have a great opportunity to establish North Carolina among the national leaders for this industry."
NCBIO and its consortium partners have been awarded a $100,000 Centers of Innovation Phase I planning grant from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center. The Centers of Innovation Program was created to help spur commercialization and industry growth around technologies with connections to biotechnology.
Members of the consortium partnership include academic and technology transfer entities at Duke University, East Carolina University, North Carolina State University, the Universities of North Carolina at Charlotte, and Chapel Hill, Wake Forest University and Western Carolina University, as well as regional economic development partnerships in the Charlotte, Piedmont, Research Triangle and Eastern North Carolina regions.
NCBIO hopes to have plans for the new Advanced Medical Technologies Center completed by summer of 2008, and the new entity launched by the end of the year. For more information about the project, contact Sam Taylor at staylor@ncbioscience.org.
The Council for Entrepreneurial Development will host its 17th annual Biotech Conference in Winston-Salem from May 19-20. Biotech 2008 will unite science, technology and industry leaders, featuring remarks from Ed Saltzman, founder and President of Defined Health and former North Carolina Governor Jim Hunt. Other conference programs will address a spectrum of hot topics and trends such as partnering, funding, FDA approval and globalization.
 Doug Edgeton, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Wake Forest University Health Services and President of the Piedmont Triad Research Park will speak at the NCBIO Annual Meeting, May 19, 1-2 p.m. in Winston-Salem. Edgeton will talk with members about initiatives under way as part of the Wake Forest University Health Sciences programs and efforts to develop the Piedmont Triad Research Park.
NCBIO will also elect new board members at the annual meeting. The event will be held in conjunction with BIOTECH 2008 which is sponsored by CED, the North Carolina Biotechnology Center and NCBIO. More information will be included in future NCBIO newsletters.
 The Council for Entrepreneurial Development, NCBIO and the Fuqua School of Business Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation played host to North Carolina's first annual conference dedicated to the advanced medical device industry. Speakers at the event included: Ron Dollens, former President and CEO of Guidant Corporation; Jeffrey Hoffman, Managing Director and Head of West Coast Healthcare Investment Banking at J.P. Morgan Securities Inc.; and Richard Stack, President of Synecor, LLC.
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| Richard Stack, President of Synecor, LLC |
The conference offered attendees opportunities to connect with leading medical technology investors, corporate partners and industry entrepreneurs to discuss why advanced medical technologies are one of the fastest growing segments of the life science sector.
The 2008 SEBIO Investor Forum is set for December 4-5, 2008, at the Breakers Resort in Palm Beach, Florida. The annual conference, designed to stimulate venture investment in the region, offers an "early-stage" event focused on preparing newly emerging companies for raising venture capital and a "presenting companies" event that showcases a second group of young companies that have already completed one "round" of institutional financing. In addition, the conference will wrap up SEBIO's year-long BIO/Plan competition with the final stage of the competition and announcement of the winning participant.
The day and a half day event will also explore research, market, and financing trends with nationally recognized leaders from the investment and biosciences industries. Additional information on the 2008 Tenth Anniversary will be announced in the coming months. For details on sponsorship opportunities, contact SEBIO's Executive Director Stephanie Adams at 404.424.1640.
 The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) will hold its annual Congressional Fly-in April 15-16 in Washington, DC. The Fly-in takes place every spring and hundreds of biotech industry executives participate. The event provides biotechnology industry managers to meet with the members of the 110th Congress and to advocate the BIO legislative agenda. BIO will schedule and coordinate all meetings with North Carolina's congressional delegation. In addition, BIO staff will brief participants before their visits on Capitol Hill, accompany industry representatives to all meetings and provide "leave behind" materials.
The 2008 Fly-in will begin on April 15 with a 4:30 PM briefing on BIO's key legislative issues before Congress. Following the briefing, BIO will host a welcoming reception at 6:00 PM. Both events will take place at the St. Regis Hotel (923 16th Street, NW, Washington, D.C.). The following morning, Wednesday, April 16th, participants will attend an 8:00 AM plenary breakfast on Capitol Hill. Afterwards, participants will be organized into small groups for individual meetings with legislators and key staff. The day will also feature a plenary luncheon at the Reserve Officers Association on Capitol Hill. More information.
 A team of East Carolina University professors from the Department of Engineering has been awarded a National Science Foundation grant totaling more than $136,000 to design and develop new bioprocess engineering teaching methods for undergraduate students.
The project, titled "Design and Development of Educational Modules for Bioprocess Engineering," will be handled by engineering department faculty Dr. Richard Williams, Dr. Loren Limberis and Stephanie Sullivan. The engineering team, which also includes Dr. Stacy Klein of Vanderbilt University, will build on current National Science Foundation projects.
"This grant will provide us with more capability to develop innovative and effective methods to inspire eastern North Carolina students from all groups, especially those who are underrepresented, to consider and succeed in engineering," Williams said. "These students will then enter the global market with competitive skills."
Entegrion continues to strengthen its leadership team with the addition of Joe DaCorta as its new chief technical officer and Dr. Marian McCord as part of the company's research team. With more that 25 years of healthcare experience, DaCorta will be instrumental in building Entegrion's public-private partnerships in the areas of bio-defense and homeland security. He will also be involved in developing joint ventures for Entegrion's global initiatives. Dr. McCord will work with Entegrion's chief science officer and inventor of the Stasilon™ technologies, Dr. Thomas Fischer, on research and development of new wound care products based on medical textiles. Dr. McCord is an associate professor in the Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering with UNC-Chapel Hill and NCSU and is on scholarly leave from NCSU. Entegrion is a therapeutic development company that specializes in developing technologies for hemorrhage control, wound management and associated tissue repair.
Precision BioSciences, Inc ., and DuPont have announced a technology collaboration to bring higher-yielding agricultural products to the market faster. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. The agreement provides DuPont business, Pioneer Hi-Bred, rights to Precision's Directed Nuclease Editor™ (DNE) technology to introduce and stack multiple genes. The technology accelerates product development in corn, soybeans and other important agricultural crops and aids in the discovery of new traits. Precision's mission is to utilize its engineered endonucleases to become the world leader in the field of genomic molecular biology.
Don deBethizy, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Targacept, Inc., participated in a panel presentation at the 10th Annual BIO CEO and Investor Conference. Targacept is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing a new class of drugs known as NNR therapeutics. Dr. deBethizy participated as a panelist in a workshop entitled, "Cognition: CNS Companies to Remember." The workshop featured a discussion regarding new technologies aiming to address the problem of diminishing cognition in today's aging population.
To have your company included in Member News, send releases to Brenda Summers.
 Study Finds Legislation Would Impose Significant Costs on Patent System and Could Undermine U.S. Innovation and Economic Growth
Certain controversial elements of the patent 'reform' legislation pending before the Congress would sharply increase patent costs and risks, undermining innovation with potentially serious consequences for the U.S. economy, concluded two independent experts in a new analysis released by the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO).
The study, entitled "The Economic Implications of Patent Reform: The Deficiencies and Costs of Proposals Regarding the Apportionment of Damages, Post-Grant Opposition and Inequitable Conduct," was conducted by Robert J. Shapiro, a renowned economist and senior government official in the Clinton Administration, and Aparna Mathur, a leading health care policy expert.
BIO President and CEO Jim Greenwood stated, "U.S. intellectual property is estimated to be worth more than $5 trillion. This new analysis finds that elements of the patent reform legislation pending before the Congress would put this value at risk by raising both the costs and uncertainties of the patent system." He continued, "This legislation, as currently written, would undermine one of the fundamental pillars of U.S. economic growth and innovation – our strong patent system – putting the United States at an economic and technological leadership disadvantage. If enacted into law without substantial changes, this bill would serve as an unwelcome, and unnecessary, jolt to an economy already on the brink of recession, jeopardizing hundreds of thousands of high-wage American jobs in biotechnology and other patent-intensive industries."
Agriculture Biotechnology Continues to Increase Crop Yield
Global use of biotech crops increased again in 2007, with global biotech crop acreage reaching a historic 282 million acres in 23 countries, according to the International Service for the Acquisition of Agribiotech Applications (ISAAA). Global biotech crop acreage increased nearly 12 percent from 2006, when 252 million acres of biotech crops were grown in 22 countries.
"The reason for such impressive worldwide adoption rates is simple — agricultural biotechnology delivers significant and tangible benefits, all the way from farm to fork," said Jim Greenwood, President and CEO of BIO. "Helping to provide for more sustainable agricultural production, the benefits include a reduction in the environmental impacts of agriculture, increased production on the same amount of acreage, improved food quality, and increased farmer incomes. More than 12 million farmers around the world have chosen biotech crops because of the significant socioeconomic, environmental, and agricultural benefit they provide."
April 14, 2008. Biotech Forum. Innovative Business Models. For more information.
May 19-20, 2008. Biotech 2008: Fusing Science, Technology and Industry Leadership. Benton Convention Center, Winston-Salem, NC. The 17th annual Biotech conference is presented by CED in partnership with the North Carolina Biotechnology Center and NCBIO. The Biotech Conference unites the Southeast's life science communities. Fueled by pioneering research and development and a strong entrepreneurial spirit, come see for yourself why Biotech 2008 will be the biotechnology event of the year, celebrating what is widely considered one of the biotech industry's top three economies in the country.
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| NCBIO Emerging Companies Forum |
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NCBIO This Month
