Amid news Wednesday that Kucera Pharmaceutical Co. in Winston-Salem was hanging on by a thread, two state officials visited High Point to tour three biotechnology companies that have recently expanded. Secretary of Commerce Jim Fain and Dr. Leslie Alexandre, president of the N.C. Biotechnology Center, visited MWG Biotech, which produces synthetic DNA; TransTech Pharma, a drug discovery company; and PharmaCore, which produces clinical samples for research. “In many ways the Triad is like a mini-Triangle,” said Alexandre, who praised the region for its efforts in building a biotechnology infrastructure. “Biotech is not really an industry,” she added. “Biotech is a set of tools that is yielding incredible outcomes in pharmaceuticals, in animal health and agriculture."She said the Triad was attracting a diverse base of life-science companies that would help it meet the needs of many industries. The region’s schools, including GTCC and Forsyth Tech, are also successful in creating programs that would help ensure that regional companies had high-skilled labor, she said."I think it’s phenomenal to come to High Point, a community known worldwide for furniture, and the leaders have made concerted efforts to grow the life sciences industry,” she said. “It’s exciting.”
