Not everyone knows it, but some of North Carolina’s most successful life science companies won very early stage support from NC Biotechnology Center (BTC) grants and loans.Two of the region’s most successful public companies, Embrex (Nasdaq:EMBX) and Trimeris, (Nasdaq:TRMS) received early stage support from BTC. Trimeris, which launched the first of its new type of HIV-fighting drugs, Fuzeon, this year, received a Biotech Center loan of $250,000 in 1993 that helped it conduct research and raise additional capital. Embrex, which makes an in-the-egg vaccination machine and vaccines for commercial chicken producers, received more than $200,000 from the BTC back in 1985 and went on to raise $16 million in venture capital and launch a successful initial public offering of stock.The academic research initiation grant, a BTC program discontinued due to budget cutbacks, helped AlphaVax, which is developing leading edge vaccines, at what the company says was “a very critical time.” Perhaps even less known to the general public than its early stage support to nascent start-ups, the BTC’s science and technology development grants help state universities attract top-of-the-line academic research talent, fund projects of commercial interest in academic laboratories, and encourage innovative collaborative research.
