Science in the Triangle

Duke University Health System announced plans for a $700 million cancer center, GlaxoSmithKline’s diet pill Alli is being investigated for possibly causing serious liver damage and Wall Street observers project a flurry of companies may try to go public after Labor Day.

Could Tranzyme be the first U.S. biotech IPO in 2009?

Tranzyme Pharma is one of dozens of drug development companies in North Carolina’s Research Triangle area, a biotech hot spot that is ranked third in the nation by number of companies. The Durham company has diligently advanced therapies based on a hormone that was discovered a decade ago, a technology also used by two rivals. Now, Tranzyme’s Board of Directors has to decide how to pay for the final development step and get its drugs to market: Go public, sell the company or go back to its investors hat in hand one more time.

Part 1: Ghrelin - a new hormone is found.

Part 2: Getting a ghrelin drug to market.

Part 3: Next - a crucial decision.

Duke plans to spend $700 million on new cancer center

Duke University Health System announced plans to build a seven-story cancer center and an eight-story medicine pavillion.

Duke’s expansion is projected to cost $700 million and be completed within four years. During construction, about 1,500 jobs will be created, about 1,000 when the project is finished.

This will be the second cancer center going up on a university campus in the Triangle.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill just finished a $200 million cancer hospital and opened it to patients mid-August.

GSK diet pill under scutiny

The Food and Drug Administration is looking into the possibility that a diet pill could cause serious liver injuries.

Orlistat, which GlaxoSmithKline markets as Alli and Roche as Xenical, is linked to 32 adverse event reports the FDA has received from 1999 to 2008. All of the cases occurred outside the U.S.

In other company news:

• Alcatel-Lucent lays off 12 percent of its Triangle work force.
• Affiliated Computer Services plans to fill 465 jobs at a Raleigh call center.
• BDSI wins a 2-year patent extension for its Onsolis technology.
• Durham-based Carolina Solar Energy brings on line a five-acre solar farm in Person County that feeds electricity into Progress Energy’s power grid.