The Missouri Department of Economic Development on Oct. 30 joined Nanova Biomaterials, Inc. (NBI), and local leaders to celebrate the grand opening of the company’s new $1.5-million location in Columbia, Mo. Nanova expects to create up to 50 new jobs within the first five years. Founded in 2007 by a group of four researchers, two of whom are from the University of Missouri, Nanova uses nanotechnology to manufacture orthopedic and dental products, such as dental fillings and bone screws. NBI was spun out in 2013 from parent company Nanova Inc., to focus on nanotechnology research. Recently approved by the FDA, the company’s StarBright 5% Sodium Fluoride Dental Varnish is now being manufactured at the new facility. As a rapidly growing company with three additional products pending FDA- approval, NBI expects to nearly double the size of its workforce by 2016.

“The establishment of NBI is also a result of an investment of over $7 million lead by SummitView Capital. Besides the support from the University, the National Science Foundation, and the National Institute of Health, Nanova has also been supported by the State, especially the Small Business Technology and Development Center,” said Dr. Li, president of NBI and recipient of the 2009 National Science Foundation Career Award. “Actually our very first grant of $5,000 is a state backed grant, which is how we got started.”

Boston-based CompuGroup Medical US (CGM) announced last week that, effective January 1, 2015, the company's head office will be located in Phoenix, Ariz. “The move will consolidate some key business units into a single location and is a strategic response to the growing demand for the company's products and services,” said CGM. From January 2015, the existing office at 3300 N. Central Avenue, Suite 2100 in Phoenix will be co-located with the new head office and will serve as a unified location for HR, R&D, product management, marketing and sales.

“Since the company's inception in 2010, CGM has seen an expansion of its strategic product and service portfolio to meet an increasing demand from a customer base of medical practices, community health centers and many other healthcare organizations,” said the company. “The relocation is part of the company's effort to accommodate the expansion of CGM's growing customer-base, staff and internal infrastructure.”

Arcturus Therapeutics, an RNA medicines company pursuing products for orphan diseases that was born in the Janssen Labs incubator in the San Diego area, announced early this month its move into La Jolla’s Torrey Ridge Science Center, where it has leased more than 10,000 sq. ft. of space. Plans call to increase the workforce from 13 to about 35 over the next year.

“The Arcturus story began at the cutting edge Johnson and Johnson Innovation Center here in San Diego,” said Joseph E. Payne, president and CEO of Arcturus Therapeutics, Inc. “Today, we are ‘graduating’ from the incubator space and moving into top-tier facilities that will enable us to execute our vision of bringing transformational life-saving RNA medicines to patients.”

On Nov. 4 the U.S. Army 832nd Transportation Battalion, in partnership with JAXPORT and Portus, loaded a shipment of approximately 800 pieces of military equipment to be used for humanitarian aid aimed at stopping the spread of Ebola in West Africa. The 832nd is based at JAXPORT’s Blount Island Marine Terminal in North Jacksonville. The Humvees, dump trucks, forklifts and other support and construction equipment will be used as part of Operation United Assistance, the US government’s efforts to contain the spread of the disease in the West African countries most impacted: Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

JAXPORT is one of 17 US Strategic Seaports on-call to move military cargo for national defense, foreign humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, and the only port in Florida with this designation.

Boston-based PAREXEL International Corp., a global biopharmaceutical services provider, has announced the opening of its new European Coordination Hub and Distribution Center in Berlin-Schonefeld, Germany. The facility expands the Company's capacity to provide comprehensive clinical trial supply and logistics services to support clients' local, regional and global trial requirements.

"To safely and efficiently conduct clinical trials, our customers need highly specialized clinical supply and logistics services for studies that can span dozens of countries and hundreds of sites around the world," said Mark A. Goldberg, president and COO of PAREXEL. "Our new European distribution center reflects a commitment to simplify the important end-to-end supply-management aspect of the drug-development journey."

"Through this center, we can customize sourcing and distribution strategies for customers in ways that are efficient, robust and compliant with local regulations," said Thomas Senderovitz, Senior Vice President, Clinical Research Services, PAREXEL. "In addition, from this central location, we can provide responsive, timely delivery services to all EU destinations."

PAREXEL also is opening new full-service clinical trial supply depots in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Sao Paulo, Brazil. The facilities are part of PAREXEL's growing global system of more than 50 owned or in-network depots and three regional distribution centers.

Argos Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of fully personalized immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer and infectious diseases using its Arcelis® technology platform, broke ground Oct. 22 on a new 100,000-sq.-ft. (9,290-sq.-m.)  biomanufacturing facility in the Research Triangle Park area in Durham, N.C. The facility may lead to more than 230 new jobs.

"We founded Argos in the Research Triangle Park area and I am glad that our new state of the art manufacturing facility will be right here in this rapidly growing global center for biomedical research," said Jeff Abbey, president and CEO of Argos. "Durham is the ideal location for us to attract the experienced talent we need to expand our operations as we continue the development of our Arcelis-based products."

Argos received approximately $9.5 million in incentives from the State of North Carolina, Durham County, the City of Durham, and the North Carolina Biotechnology Center. The Keith Corporation of Charlotte, N.C., will construct the facility on T.W. Alexander Drive in Durham. It’s Keith’s fifth development project along that corridor.

BluePrint Healthcare IT, The Innovation Institute and the Innovation Lab are hosting the Fourth Innovation Centers Summit Workshop at the The Innovation Institute’s new Innovation Lab in Newport Beach, Calif., Nov. 17-18. Open to provider-based healthcare innovation centers, the workshop’s theme is “Optimizing innovation centers to lead healthcare transformation.”

“As innovators in healthcare, we have a responsibility to one another to exchange ideas and share experiences that will benefit patients, care teams, and physicians as well as our organizations and the entire healthcare system,” said Larry Stofko, executive vice president at The Innovation Institute. “With the opening of our new Innovation Lab facility, hosting BluePrint’s Innovation Centers Summit Workshop will be a great opportunity for healthcare innovation centers across North America to collaborate.”