Talecris Biotherapeutics reported solid fourth quarter earnings today as it awaits word on whether federal regulators will approve its $4 billion buyout by Grifols of Spain.

Talecris reported fourth-quarter revenue of $410.8 million, up 5.3 percent from the same period last year. Net income rose 19 percent to $68.5 million.

For the year, Talecris had revenue of $1.6 billion, up 4.5 percent from the prior year.

Last week, Talecris shareholders approved the deal with Grifols.

It won't close before March 21, and the deadline could be extended further.

The Federal Trade Commission is reviewing the deal to make sure it doesn't hurt consumers or lead to higher prices for medicines made from blood plasma.

A Triangle company that develops techniques to stop emergency bleeding won a $8.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to develop dried plasma for blood transfusions in battlefield and emergency situations.

Entegrion, based in Research Triangle Park, will use the money to continue researching and developing the its experimental plasma product over two years and produce the material in test batches.

The benefit of dried plasma over frozen plasma is that it can be used in emergencies without chilling equipment and thawing, said Mike Galiger, Entegrion's manager for manufacturing and engineering.

A plasma center in Eagle Pass, Texas run by Talecris Biotherapeutics was featured in a Sunday New York Times article about the practice of locating the plasma centers along the Mexican border and in areas with high rates of poverty and drug abuse.
In the article, Bruce Nogales, who runs plasma collection for Talecris, says the same precautions are taken at the border as everywhere else the company collects plasma.
“I don’t understand the difference between having a center in El Paso and having a center in Columbus, Ohio,” Nogales told the paper. Nine of Talecris’s 71 collection centers, including four new ones, are on the border, the article notes. Talecris, which is based in Research Triangle Park, also operates a plasma center in Clayton.