Vipin Garg, the chief executive of Tranzyme Pharma, a small Durham drug development company, has the credentials to get invited to official events in the Research Triangle area, such as the opening of Quintiles Transnational's new headquarters last month. But until now, he has shown no appetite for stepping out into the limelight himself.

The Entrepreneur of the Year awards program, run by Ernst & Young, one of the four big business auditing companies, is changing that.

Garg was named one of six winners of the award in the Carolinas Thursday night at the Westin Hotel in Charlotte. He is now eligible for the national awards, which Forbes.com has called one of seven "Get-Ahead Executive Retreats." Last year, Matthew Szulik, CEO of Red Hat in Raleigh, won a regional and national Entrepreneur of the Year award.

The attention clearly boosts Garg's and Tranzyme's standing, but the jury is still out whether it will help RTP. Tranzyme was poised to consider an initial public offering a year ago, but Wall Street was reeling from the credit crisis. A partnership with a large drugmaker or a sale of the company were also options.

The Entrepreneur of the Year winners in the Carolinas were selected by a panel of regional business, academic and community leaders. Among the accomplishments they looked at to pick Garg were the more than $50 million in venture capital he helped raise for Tranzyme in 2005 and 2007 to fund the company's research.

Investors wouldn't have risked that much money if Tranzyme's executive leadership had fumbled or the company's technology had raised questions. So far, Garg and his executive team have overseen a smooth development of Tranzyme's most advanced experimental drug to late-stage testing. A second drug is in Phase II testing and two other compounds are in animal testing.

Tranzyme's technology aims to stimulate or block the ghrelin receptor, which is found on the surface of cells lining the stomach and the small and large intestines. Ghrelin is a hormone that is involved in many physiological processes, including the release of growth hormone, appetite regulation, gastric acid secretion, gastrointestinal motility and blood pressure regulation.

TZP-101, the company's most advanced drug, is projected to enter Phase III testing for post-operative ileus and is in Phase II testing for diabetic gastroparesis, two painful disorders in which portions of the gastrointestinal tract stop functioning.