Science in the Triangle

A report offers hope that federal funds could become available for economic development in innovation hot spots such as the Research Triangle area, Bayer CropScience adds a research collaboration to recent efforts of creating better biotech seeds and Family Health International, a Durham organization that aims to improve public health worldwide, uses realty shows to stem the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Geography of innovation

President Barack Obama has asked Congress to appropriate $100 million in fiscal year 2010 to renew economic development efforts at regional innovation hot spots.

A report supports those efforts, saying that areas such as the Silicon Valley, an information technology cluster, and biotech clusters in Boston and the Research Triangle Park area, are critical components of national competitiveness.

The federal government already funds about $150 billion of research and development per year.

North Carolina’s biotech industry, which is concentrated in the Triangle, is considered the third largest by number of companies. But the Triangle is also home to information technology and medical device clusters that together created more than 5,000 jobs between 1998 and 2006, according to the report.

Deals and regulatory actions

Bayer CropScience added a research collaboration to other recent deals aimed at coming up with better genetically modified crop seeds.

The German company, which has its U.S. headquarters in RTP, will partner with Precision BioSciences of San Diego. The deal is the third in a row to improve Bayer CropSciences’ ability to compete in the GM seeds market.

In recent weeks, the company bought rights from Texas Tech to improve the fiber quality from cotton seeds and announced it would buy its RTP-neighbor Athenix.

More about why Bayer CropScience is dealing here.

Other company news:

• Cornerstone Therapeutics, a Cary company specializing in respiratory treatments, received approval to buy the rights to an antibiotic from Oscient Pharmaceuticals, a Massachusetts company that has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
• The Food and Drug Administration told Pozen that the Chapel Hill drug development company’s request to approve PN400, a painkiller that causes fewer stomach ulcers, is complete. The FDA notice triggered a $10 million milestone payment from British pharma giant Astra-Zeneca, Pozen’s partner. Pozen filed the request in June and the FDA is expected to rule on it in 2010.
• BioDelivery Sciences International will close its research laboratory in Newark and consolidate operations at corporate headquarters in Raleigh. All four positions in Newark will be eliminated to save about $1 million in operating costs per year. More about BDSI here.
• Shares of Icagen get a lift after a mid-stage study shows that the Durham drug development company’s experimental asthma drug eases allergy-related attacks.

Reality shows aim at preventing HIV spread

Family Health International, a Durham organization that aims to improve public health worldwide, is behind two reality shows to prevent the spread of HIV.

“Bongo Star Search” is a competition for would-be pop stars in Tanzania and “You’re the Man” is a competition that challenges stereotypes of what it means to be a man in Cambodia.