Science in the Triangle

Novartis opens the doors to the first flu vaccine plant in the U.S. that uses cell cultures instead of chicken eggs, Research Triangle Park tries to modernize as the recession exacts its toll and Salix Pharmaceuticals sells $128 million in stock sale.

Novartis opens vaccine plant

Swiss drugmaker Novartis offered a rare look inside the vaccine manufacturing plant it is about to finish in Holly Springs. The plant will be the first U.S. facility to make flu vaccines from cell cultures instead of fertilized chicken eggs.

With a production capacity of up to 150 million doses per year and room for expansions on the 167-acre site, the Novartis vaccine manufacturing plant in Holly Springs will also be one of the largest.

Company officials expect that the first dose made in Holly Springs will be sold in 2011 - a milestone in U.S. flu vaccine manufacturing, which has relied on fertilized chicken eggs since the end of World War II.

The Holly Springs plant required about $1 billion in investments - about $600 million from Novartis and $487 million from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

More about the plant here.

RTP looks to adapt to 21st century

Research Triangle Park, a 7,000-acre economic engine in North Carolina, is trying to modernize as the recession is taking its toll on the second oldest research park.

The efforts to move to the 21st century are laid out in BusinessWeek. The story talks about the Research Triangle Foundation, which manages RTP, switching its attention from companies to the people working in RTP.

The News & Observer zeros in on the effects the recession is having on RTP: a 27 percent office vacancy rate.

In the past two weeks, financial services firm Credit Suisse sold about half the land it bought two years ago back to RTP for $3.2 million and cell phone maker Sony Ericsson announced it would close its RTP operations and eliminate 425 local jobs.

Salix raises $128 million

Salix Pharmaceuticals raised $128 million in a stock sale. Analysts expect the Morrisville company, which specializes in gastrointestinal medicines, to spend some of the money on buying the rights to new products.

Salix shares more than doubled in the past six months largely because of promising test results for its medicine rifaximin. The antibiotic performed well treating non-constipation irritable bowel syndrome.