Last Friday morning, top officials with Talecris Biotherapeutics, including CEO Lawrence Stern, pressed the opening buzzer at the Nasdaq stock market in New York.
The ceremony marked the start of trading for the Research Triangle Park drug company's shares on Thursday.
This Friday, it's Mark Sirgo's turn.
The CEO of BioDelivery Sciences International and other executives are scheduled to do the Nasdaq honors to celebrate the Raleigh company's first product, the Onsolis pain treatment.
After winning regulatory approval in July, BioDelivery's Swedish marketing partner, Meda AB, has been promoting Onsolis to physicians for several weeks now. The drug will become officially available to patients next week, Sirgo said.
The Nasdaq opening bell ceremony "normally happens around a significant event," Sirgo said in a phone interview this morning. "With our first product launching, they felt that was more than enough reason to have us up there."
U.S. sales of the drug, aimed mostly at cancer patients, eventually are expected to top $200 million a year.
BioDelivery's shares have fallen 29 percent since late July. But shares purchased a year ago have more than doubled in value. The stock was up 1 cent in morning trading to $4.94.
While in New York, Sirgo and his executives also plan to meet with investors and media. "We hope to use the opportunity to make as many people aware of the company and Onsolis as possible," he said.
While Sirgo said he'll stick mostly to business on the trip, he's hoping some of his team will get to do something fun, like catch the start of baseball playoffs at the New York Yankees' new stadium.
"There's always something going on in New York, isn't there," Sirgo mused.
Assistant Business Editor Alan M. Wolf joined the N&O in 1999 covering the business of health care. He became an editor in 2001, and helps oversee the paper's daily business coverage and Sunday Work&Money section. He lives in Clayton with his wife and two children. Reach him at 919-829-4572 or