Five Biotech Companies To Present At Venture 2000

BT Catalyst, April, 2000

Don't miss the 17th Annual Venture 2000 Conference, May 9-10, when five area biotechnology companies present their business missions and financial goals to the venture capital community.

Venture 2000 continues the Council for Entrepreneurial Development's long tradition of presenting the Southeast's best investment opportunities. In years past, companies such as Xanthon, Biolex Inc. and SciQuest have all benefited from the exposure by receiving needed financing.

The companies listed below, which are scheduled to make presentations, have so far raised a total of $18.8 million.

ArgoMed Inc. of Morrisville is the developer of the Thermoflex system, an effective new treatment for benign prostatic hyperplasia, a non-malignant enlargement of the prostate gland that is common in older men. While surgery has been the standard of treatment in the past, the high cost and incidence of complications has sent urologists searching for a better alternative. ArgoMed's new water-induced thermotherapy procedure is a simple, low-cost therapy that requires no sedation and can be performed in a hospital, outpatient setting or doctor's office. To date, the procedure has been used on over 700 patients with excellent results. ArgoMed had 1999 revenues of $254,000 and projected 2000 revenues of $712,000. The company raised $9.3 million through two equity financings. A.M. Pappas & Associates LLC of Research Triangle Park will lead rounds C and D of financing for an additional $6 million, and ArgoMed seeks an additional $2 million. See the company's Web site at www.argomed.com.

Cogent Neuroscience Inc. of Durham offers a unique genomics platform for the discovery of new and effective treatments for diseases of the brain. So far, the company has discovered genes for the treatment of neuro-degenerative diseases and treatment of stroke and traumatic brain injury. In 1998, the company raised $5.4 million in seed funding from North Carolina-based Intersouth Partners, The Aurora Funds, Kitty Hawk Capital and the North Carolina Bioscience Investment Fund launched by the North Carolina Biotechnology Center. See the company's Web site at http:// www.cogentneuro.com.

MERIX Bioscience Inc. of Research Triangle Park offers an RNA loaded vaccine against most types of cancers. The company expects the vaccine to be the only available treatment for the majority of cancer patients who are at risk for relapse and cannot benefit from other competing vaccine strategies. The company has raised more than $11 million in funding through Intersouth Partners of Morrisville and The Aurora Funds of Durham and Becton Dickinson Technologies, which has facilities in Research Triangle Park. MERIX also recently closed a $1.9 million series A preferred stock placement with a broad syndicate of venture investors.

Norak Biosciences Inc. of Durham has licensed proprietary technology that enables the G-protein Coupled Receptors (GPCRs) function to be monitored in real time. Compounds that interact directly with GPCRs account for 60 percent of all commercially available drugs. Norak's [Transfluor.sup.TM] technology can be applied to the diagnosis of disease and the identification of natural ligands. The company has raised $700,000 in seed funding and seeks an additional $2 million to $3 million.

Quill Medical Inc. of Chapel Hill is developing a suture product line based on a proprietary design that permits self-anchoring. The solution aims to greatly simplify 40 million surgical closures by avoiding lacing and knotting of conventional sutures. It also will enable cosmetic surgery without incision. The product is made of conventional resorbable polymers, requiring limited safety testing. Quill was issued a U.S. patent and has one pending in Japan. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given the device a preliminary Class II designation. The company raised an initial round of $1.5 million from founders and angel investors and seeks an additional $2 million.