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.
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.
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, ...
