Syngenta Biotechnology has recruited a top researcher from a main rival to oversee its global biotech research efforts.

While just one man changing jobs, the news also reinforces this region's reputation as a major hub in the world's economy.

Michiel van Lookeren Campagne, who earned his college degrees in the Netherlands, will be based at Syngenta's North American biotech headquarters in Research Triangle Park. That's where the division of the Swiss drug maker employs more than 400 people. He'll also oversee research at a facility in Beijing.

He previously was head of bioscience research at Bayer CropScience, a division of the German conglomerate that also employs more than 400 at its North American headquarters in RTP.

Both Syngenta Biotechnology and Bayer CropScience are expanding as demand increases for pesticides and other crop protection products.

A small Durham company developing drugs using stem cells is reviving plans for an initial public offering of stock, hoping to take advantage of renewed Wall Street interest in biotechnology IPOs.

Aldagen scrapped previous IPO plans in Oct. 2008 when the stock market slumped and investors shunned risky, unprofitable companies. But stocks have surged since March and IPOs are returning to favor.

This morning Aldagen, which was founded in 2000 as StemCo Biomedical, refiled IPO plans with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The filing is missing some key details, such as the expected price range. But Aldagen indicated it expects to raise as much as $80.5 million and its shares to trade on the Nasdaq under the symbol "ALDH."

Durham biotech company Metabolon announced this morning that it secured $6 million in venture capital funding to finance operations.

The latest round of venture capital brings the company's total haul to about $31 million since 2003.

Metabolon was incorporated in 2000 and today employs 52 people, mostly in Durham. The company is run by CEO John Ryals, who previously was founder and CEO of Paradigm Genetics.

A small Durham company that stores biological samples for companies, university researchers and others has raised $400,000 from so-called angel investors.

Kryosphere, which also recently celebrated its second anniversary, stores millions of samples in massive freezers (thus the penguin images in its marketing materials). The company employs eight full-time workers and adds more part-timers as needed, said CEO and co-founder Eric Hallman.

"With automated systems, we're not going to be huge employers," he added.

The company is seeing increasing demand as biotech and pharmaceutical companies outsource sample storage to reduce the hassle and cost, Hallman said.

Oxygen Biotherapeutics, a small company that moved its headquarters to Durham from California in the spring, announced that shareholders approved a reverse stock split.

The split will give every investor one share for every 15 they now own. The shares now are traded over the counter but the split will boost the stock's price to the point where it will qualify for listing on a major exchange.

Getting onto an exchange could help attract more interest from Wall Street.

Oxygen is developing products to treat various ailments and injuries by increasing the delivery of oxygen to damaged tissue.

CEO Chris Stern, who took over the company when its previous CEO died unexpectedly last year, lived in in this region and decided to shift Oxygen's headquarters to Durham. The company now employs 19 people.

Oxygen shares closed Monday at 47 cents.

Talecris Biotherapeutics raised $600 million by selling senior notes, two weeks after the company brought in $950 million in its initial public offering of stock.

The Research Triangle Park company will use the latest financing to repay existing, more expensive loans.

Talecris is bolstering its balance sheet as officials consider where to expand production of medicines made from blood plasma. Executives could choose to add capacity and hundreds of more jobs at a massive Clayton facility but have said they're also looking at new sites.

The Council for Entrepreneurial Development, which marked its 25th anniversary this year, has a new logo, slogan and branding campaign as it looks to expand its membership during a down economy.

The Research Triangle Park nonprofit saw membership increase about 8 percent for the year that ended in June, and has set a goal of 10 percent for the current year, said Joan Siefert Rose, who became CED's president in August 2008.

CED was formed in 1984 and is now one of the country's largest support groups for entrepreneurs and small businesses, with more than 5,500 members.

Siefert Rose spoke by telephone this morning about the group's new look and more. Here are some highlights of that conversation:

On the new brand: CED's previous logo was about 15 years old and "it looked like it needed some upgrading," she said. The new one features a pattern of swirling dots with an orange dot in the center and the new slogan "Start Something." Clean Design, an RTP brand firm, designed the new look.
The group also is starting to refer to itself as "CED," rather than the full name, which "was sort of a mouthful," Siefert Rose said. "It's nice to have a fresh start."

GlaxoSmithKline plans to build a massive biotechnology science park at its campus in Stevenage, England, as part of a broader effort to foster new companies working on promising medicines.

During a visit to Raleigh in June, CEO Andrew Witty said that the British drug maker was considering setting up new facilities for biotech startups. Witty said the company would look at adding facilities at its campus in Research Triangle Park.

Ironically, in today's announcement, GSK notes that its planned $270 million biotech campus about 30 miles of London "will compete with those in Boston, California and North Carolina."

And Witty said the campus would "affirm the U.K. as a global hub for the life-sciences industry."

GSK is working with the British government and other groups to pay for the campus, which it expects to open in 2011. The campus would be a base for up to 1,500 scientists and hold 25 companies.

Less than two weeks after Talecris Biotherapeutics raised $950 million in an IPO, the company announced plans to bring in another $550 million in debt.

The Research Triangle Park company will sell up to $550 million in senior notes and use the proceeds to repay other, more expensive loans. The notes due 2016 will be sold only to big institutional investors such as investment banks and mutual funds.

As Talecris bolsters it balance sheet, officials have said they expect to spend $750 million on expansions over the next five years. They are considering adding new production capacity at the company's massive blood-plasma plant in Clayton, but also are looking at new sites elsewhere.

The company, which employs more than 2,200 in the Triangle, is seeing increasing demand for its medicines made from plasma, including treatments for patients with comprised immune systems.

A Talecris spokeswoman declined to comment on the debt offering, citing securities regulations limiting what companies can say before and after an initial public offering of stock.

Talecris shares, which began trading Oct. 1 at $19 each, fell 28 cents today to $21.07.

Talecris Biotherapeutics ended the week in the plus column.

Shares of the Research Triangle Park company closed Friday, their second day of trading, at $22.66, up $1.51. That came on a day when broader stock-market indices fell again, finishing with the first back-to-back weekly losses since July.

Talecris sold 50 million shares at $19 each late Wednesday, marking the first IPO for a Triangle corporation in more than two years.

Friday's close gives investors, which include many of the company's more than 2,000 local employees, a respectable return of nearly 20 percent in two days.