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.

Talecris Biotherapeutics wowed 'em on Wall Street.

The Research Triangle Park company late today raised $950 million before fees through an initial public offering of stock, the first IPO by a Triangle corporation in more than two years.

The company sold 50 million shares at $19 each.

Talecris originally submitted plans with the Securities and Exchange Commission to sell 44.7 million shares at $18 to $20 each.

Selling more shares suggests that big investors who run mutual and pension funds are betting the company's stock is a smart buy. The shares are scheduled to begin trading publicly tomorrow.

"Everyone hears 'biotherapeutics' or some variation of that name and expect it's an early stage company," said David Menlow, president of research firm IPO Financial Network. "But this is a company with large marketshare. This is a company that should continue to do well."

So what's Chris Viehbacher, who quit as GlaxoSmithKline's top executive in Research Triangle Park earlier this year, up to these days?

Sounds like the same strategy of his former GSK counterparts: seeking acquisitions of promising vaccines, biotechnology drugs and other new medicines.

Viehbacher, who is now CEO of Paris-based Sanofi-Aventis, told Bloomberg News that "there will be more shopping on the horizon." Sanofi has already spent $9 billion this year buying health-care companies and products to boost revenue and bolster its pipeline of new products.

Talecris Biotherapeutics is expected to go public Wednesday night, marking the first Wall Street debut for a Triangle company in more than two years.

The Research Triangle Park company makes medicines from blood plasma at a massive manufacturing plant in Clayton. Talecris was created in 2005 when two investment firms bought Bayer's blood-plasma business.

The IPO will enrich those firms, Talecris executives and some of its more than 2,000 local employees. The company employs more than 4,700 worldwide, and also owns a chain of plasma collection centers.

The IPO could have another positive effect locally. If the deal is successful, Talecris reported in a regulatory filing that it plans to spend about $750 million over the next five years on upgrades to its manufacturing facilities, mostly in Clayton. That's up from $580 million the company spent on upgrades since 1995.

Officials with Talecris Biotherapeutics are hitting the road.

Executives with the Research Triangle Park company have kicked off a "road show" to drum up support for their proposed IPO. The company and the two investment firms that have owned it since 2005 filed last week to raise up to $894 million in an initial public offering of stock.

The term "road show" refers to the process when company leaders spend a couple of weeks traveling with banking underwriters to sell the IPO to big money mangers on Wall Street, such as pension funds and mutual funds.

Assuming they find a warm reception, Talecris is scheduled to go public on Sept. 30, according to Renaissance Capital, a Greenwich, Conn., IPO research firm.

Talecris Biotherapeutics is preparing to move ahead with one of the largest initial public offerings of stock ever by a Triangle company.

The biotechnology company plans to sell 44.7 million shares at $18 to $20 each, according to a regulatory filing submitted late Thursday. At those terms, which could change before the final deal, the company would raise as much as $894 million before expenses.

By filing those details with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Talecris is taking is a crucial step to revive its long-delayed IPO. Company officials still must convince big Wall Street investors to buy its shares and receive SEC approval for the deal.

The IPO would be a financial boost for Talecris' owners, and any employees who hold stock options. The company employs about 4,700 worldwide, including more than 2,000 at its Research Triangle Park headquarters and at a massive Clayton plant that makes medicines from blood plasma.

Cornerstone Therapeutics has received the go-ahead to acquire the antibiotic Factive for $5 million in cash.

Cary-based Cornerstone said today that it received bankruptcy court approval to acquire Factive, which last year generated $16 million in sales, from Oscient Pharmaceuticals Corp. Oscient, based in Massachusetts, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July.

Factive, which is used for respiratory ailments, has been  available in the U.S. market since 2004. Its patent protection extends to 2018, according to Cornerstone.