BIOTECH-TRANSITION TOWNS

By Catherine Macek BIOTECH-TRANSITION TOWNS Villages can grow into technology giants with the right combination of rural roots and corporate investment. Biotech businesses dot North Carolina's landscape, even turning small towns into biotech villages. Some spots offered the right space at the right time. Others provided proximity to transportation routes. Still others supplied a sweet deal to the companies they were courting. Moreover, the costs of labor, land, and construction can be lower in rural counties. Despite that diversity, all of these towns have one thing in common: They derive more than economic benefits from a biotech's presence. 1. AN ECONOMIC SHOT IN THE ARM Long known as the brick capital of the region, Sanford also boasts a pediatric vaccine-manufacturing site of pharmaceutical giant, Wyeth. Since it planted roots in the early 1990s, Wyeth has been steadily expanding and currently employs more than 1,400 workers. 2. ROLLING IN GREEN Although Chatham County is best known for its poultry-processing plants, duckweed now brings fame to county seat Pittsboro and to Biolex Therapeutics. The duckweed family comprises more than 1,000 species of tiny, ubiquitous, free-floating freshwater plants. Working out of a former hosiery mill, Biolex scientists genetically modify duckweed to make therapeutics, such as its lead product for hepatitis C, which is just starting a Phase II trial. 3. NOTHING TO SNEEZE AT Nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Lenoir is best known for furniture manufacturers and Christmas tree farms. Greer Laboratories has been producing extracts for the diagnosis and treatment of allergies since 1904 and set up shop in Lenoir in 1934. The Lenoir facility produces immunotherapy products for human and veterinary use. Greer's main focus is on sublingual-oral immunotherapy, and the company is currently conducting clinical trials throughout the United States. This form of immunotherapy is already used in Europe, and patients are happy to take allergy drops at home instead of shots in the doctor's office. 4. CATALYZING A CHANGE In 1977, Novozymes - a Danish company and the world's largest producer of enzymes - opened its US headquarters in Franklinton. This site is the largest multipurpose enzyme-manufacturing plant in the United States. In 1988, Novozymes launched the world's first enzyme product made from genetically modified microorganisms. One of its current efforts focuses on biomass conversion - transforming wood pulp, cornstalks, wheat straw, and other fibrous materials into fuel. By modifying the genetic information of a fungus, researchers created a super enzyme that breaks down cellulose into ethanol. The Franklinton facility will produce the enzyme and plans to supply it to a South Dakota biofuels producer to convert 700 tons of cornstalks into ethanol every day. 5. THE GOLDEN EGG Embrex developed a small manufacturing facility in Laurinburg. This agricultural biotechnology company develops in-the-egg solutions for the poultry industry. Its automated Inovoject system can inoculate 20,000 to 60,000 eggs per hour, eliminating the need for manual vaccination of new chicks. Available worldwide, Inovoject inoculates about 85% of all eggs produced in the United States. and Canada. The company also manufactures two poultry vaccines, including Inovocox, a vaccine that immunizes chicken embryos against coccidiosis, which is a parasitic disease of the bird's digestive system.

BIOTECH-TRANSITION TOWNS

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