Raleigh-Durham Roundup: Appia, Chimerix, Ascletis & extra

Frank Vinluan  November 17, 2014

Frank Vinluan listed below are this week’s headlines in North Carolina technology and biotechnology news: —Appia, a Durham, NC, firm that markets mobile apps online, is being received with the aid of Mandalay Digital crew (NASDAQ: MNDL) in a inventory deal that values Appia at $ sixty five million. los angeles, CA-based totally Mandalay Digital may also suppose $ 10 million of Appia’s debt, in addition to transaction fees and expenses. Appia runs on-line marketplaces that bring visibility to mobile apps; the company says its community has driven more than 85 million app installs global. Appia is paid each time an app is put in and draws extra income from promotion in the marketplaces. For the 365 days ending Sept. 30, Appia had $ 30 million in revenue, consistent with Mandalay’s documents. Mandalay’s cellular business, Digital Turbine, gives mobile content material, similar to video games, music, and eBooks for wi-fi carriers. Mandalay CEO bill Stone advised Gigaom that whereas Appia has a large developer and advertiser community, Mandalay has relationships with carriers international, and the combo would provide carriers an impressive advertising network. When the acquisition is complete, the blended firm might be referred to as Digital Turbine. the companies predict to close the deal in the first quarter of 2015. Appia founder and CEO Jud Bowman will join Mandalay’s board of administrators. —An antiviral drug from Durham, NC, pharmaceutical firm Chimerix (NASDAQ: CMRX) has been chosen for checking out in an Ebola scientific trial in West Africa. Chimerix’s brincidofovir is one among two drug candidates for the trial, so they can be funded by means of the Wellcome trust and led by way of the college of Oxford. Operational reinforce for the clinical trials in West Africa can be provided through docs without borderlines, with participation from the arena well being organization and local authorities. In October, the meals and Drug Administration cleared Chimerix to start scientific trying out of brincidofovir in Ebola. —research Triangle Park, NC, drug developer Ascletis has licensed building and commercialization rights in China for a hepatitis C drug candidate from Presidio pharmaceuticals. San Francisco, CA-based Presidio retains the rights to the compound PPI-668 in the rest of the arena. Ascletis plans to pair the compound with its own antiviral agent ASC08, which has accomplished segment 2 scientific trials. CEO Jinzi Wu says that in response to the medical knowledge thus far, the corporate believes the mix would be a good way to deal with hepatitis sufferers in China with out the unwanted side effects of interferon treatments. below the agreement, Ascletis will fund clinical development, manufacturing, and commercialization of the hepatitis C drug in China. Presidio will receive up front and development milestone payments, in addition to royalties according to Ascletis’s sales of the drug. No different details of the licensing agreement had been disclosed. —medical software firm nContact now has access to $ 20 million in financing to test a minimally invasive device developed to deal with atrial fibrillation. The financing comes from comes from an settlement with Hercules know-how boom Capital (NYSE: HTGC), an organization that specializes in lending to mission capital-backed companies in know-how and biotechnology. Morrisville, NC-primarily based nContact did not say whether or not the Hercules financing is a loan or a line of credit score. The clinical trial will examine nContact’s procedure head to head in opposition to traditional catheter ablation within the therapy of persistent atrial fibrillation. NContact’s tool already has regulatory approval in Europe to deal with atrial fibrillation and atrial flutter. The clinical trials are for approval of the instrument within the U.S. market. —Agricultural biotechnology startup AgBiome disclosed that three of the companies collaborating in its $ 17.5 million series A round closing yr are agribusiness giants Monsanto (NYSE: MON), Syngenta (NYSE: SYT)and Novozymes (NASDAQ OMX: NZYM). analysis Triangle Park, NC-based AgBiome has expertise to collect, isolate, analyze, and test microbes for use in agriculture. whereas the company has now not disclosed explicit crop goals, it has said that the microbes may be used for things corresponding to improving crop yields and controlling pests. Monsanto and Novozymes are additionally studying agricultural microbials in an R&D and commercialization partnership.

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