While big pharmaceutical companies are slashing costs, including spending on experimental drugs, smaller drug-development companies are plowing ahead with research.

That's helping fuel growth for clinical research organizations, which help drug companies research and test new medicines.

Later today, Trio Clinical Research will provide wine and snacks to celebrate. OK, the small party is mostly to mark the official opening of Trio's larger headquarters in Northwest Raleigh. The company moved from smaller digs in Durham.

And with the bigger offices, Trio is expanding. The company, founded in 2003, now has about 50 workers, with plans to add more.

Nortel Networks won bankruptcy court approval to sell its Enterprise Solutions division, a deal that will lead to more job cuts than initially indicated.

Avaya, based in New Jersey, won approval from a bankruptcy judge in Delaware this afternoon to buy the division for $915 million, Bloomberg News reported.

On Monday, officials with the companies said that Avaya planned to keep about 75 percent of the division's workers. But that's of the division's global workforce, which was about 8,000 people at the beginning of the year.

In North America, Avaya expects to keep about 60 percent of the division's workers,  Nortel spokesman Pat Cooper said today. The percentage is higher in Europe, where labor laws restrict layoffs.
 
The Enterprise division's top executive, Joel Hackney, is based at Nortel's Research Triangle Park campus, where the company still has about 1,850 workers. Nortel officials have declined to comment how many RTP workers are part of the Enterprise division.

The Avaya deal is expected to be completed later this year. Nortel filed for bankruptcy in January and has been selling its parts to repay creditors.

A federal bankruptcy judge today rejected Verizon's bid to block Nortel Networks from selling a division for $915 million.

Avaya, based in New Jersey, agreed Monday to buy Nortel's Enterprise Solutions business. But Verizon, a major user of Nortel products and services, objected to the sale, saying Avaya's refusal to assume contracts it has with Nortel could jeopardize communications systems of Verizon business customers, including various government agencies.

Following a bankruptcy hearing in Delaware this morning, however, Judge Kevin Gross overruled Verizon's objection and ordered that a hearing to approve the sale proceed, the Associated Press reported. Gross is expected to rule on the sale later today.

Joel Hackney, the top executive at Nortel's Enterprise division, is based at the Canadian company's Research Triangle Park campus, where it employs about 1,850 workers.

Avaya is expected to keep about 75 percent of the Enterprise division's employees. The deal is expected to be completed later this year.

Nortel filed for bankruptcy in January and is selling its parts to repay creditors.

Durham-based Mainline Contracting filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Tuesday, the latest Triangle real estate company to be laid low by the credit crunch.

The company’s filing lists about 550 creditors and estimated debts of between $10 million and $50 million. Mainline’s largest creditors include subcontractors, fuel providers and those selling construction materials.

Mainline is one of several contracting first that has been forced into bankruptcy in recent months.

As the fortunes of commercial and residential builders have declined, their pain has spread to the land planners, contractors, appraisers and lenders who supplied services to them.

WakeMed won approval from state regulators to expand its nursery for premature and at-risk newborns.

The $8.9 million project will add 12 beds at WakeMed's main Raleigh campus, giving it 48 neonatal intensive care beds.

But a similar expansion proposed by WakeMed's crosstown Raleigh rival, Rex Healthcare, was rejected by the state office that reviews major medical projects.

Rex has appealed the decision, plans to supply additional data to the state and expects to win approval by the end of the year, said spokeswoman Melody Hunter-Pillion.

GlaxoSmithKline issued assurances today that its swine flu shot will be approved by federal regulators "as soon as possible."

On Tuesday the Food and Drug Administration approved vaccines made by four of the five companies expected to manufacture swine flu vaccines. London-based GSK, which has its U.S. headquarters in Research Triangle Park, is the fifth company whose vaccine wasn't approved.

"It's a timing thing," Claire Brough, a GSK spokeswoman, told Bloomberg News today. "They obviously submitted their information earlier than we had. Our focus remains on the adjuvanted vaccine, which we submitted for approval earlier this month."

GlaxoSmithKline is expanding its program that provides free medicines to low income and uninsured patients.

The drug maker announced today that it will improve access to its assistance program by making it easier for patients to enroll themselves. Previously, patients had to enroll through a nurse or other health-care advocate.

Now, a patient can fill out a one-page form. Once GSK verifies income and the prescription, the company will mail a free-90 day supply of medicine.

“We are proud to discover and deliver medicines that can help people do more and feel better,” said Deirdre Connelly, GSK's president of North America Pharmaceuticals. “At the same time we recognize these are difficult financial times that can take a toll on people’s ability to pay for care.  We want to do what we can to support better health, especially for those who may find themselves suddenly in difficult financial situations.”

The mood among corporate bookkeepers is improving, another sign that the economy is likely on the mend.

Nearly 60 percent of the 657 U.S. chief financial officers surveyed this month by Duke University and CFO Magazine say they are more optimistic about the economy than they were three months ago.

But 43 percent said they still expect their companies to cut more jobs during the next year. And capital spending on new projects and investments is expected to drop 3 percent.

“The economy is showing signs of life in the U.S., with CFOs expecting earnings to grow over the next year and corporate optimism improving again this quarter,” said Kate O’Sullivan, senior writer at CFO Magazine, in a prepared statement. “While this suggests that the overall economy is stabilizing, the employment picture continues to deteriorate.”

CARY — A discount furniture retailer is taking over the old Crossroads Ford Truck showroom off Buck Jones Road.

The 80,000-square-foot space near the intersection of Walnut Street and Buck Jones Road has been vacant since 2006, when Crossroads merged several different operations in Cary into one large building off of Walnut Street.

When it does open, the Furniture 4 Less Superstore will become the third Furniture 4 Less in the area. The chain also has locations in Raleigh on Spring Forest Road and in Garner on U.S. 70 West.

Inside the store, mattresses are stacked up against the showroom windows and sofas are already priced and tagged. A sign on the door says, "Closed. Waiting four approval from Cary town."

Employees say that depending on the Town of Cary's approval, the store could open as early as next week. A grand opening is planned for October.

Blockbuster is putting more of its stores on the chopping block.

In a regulatory filing today, the struggling video-store chain with nearly two dozen Triangle locations, reported that it may close 960 stores by the end of next year.  

The Dallas-based chain operates about 3,650 company owned stores and franchisees run more than 600. Blockbuster wrote that 18 percent of its stores are unprofitable.