March 11, 2008

Argolyn Headquarters Moving To N.C.

Kyle Stock  /  Post and Courier

Research and development unit to stay in Lowcountry

Argolyn Bioscience Inc., a pharmaceutical company spun off from the Medical University of South Carolina, has hired a chief executive from North Carolina and is moving its corporate headquarters to the hotbed of the Tar Heel State's technology industry. The company will keep its research and development unit at MUSC and in North Charleston.

Argolyn, which became a private company in 2002, has been one of the brightest prospects in Charleston's burgeoning technology industry. Since its launch from MUSC's Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, the eight-person startup has bagged six patents and almost $19 million in funding, including $16 million in capital investment last year.

Ernest Andrade, founder of the city of Charleston's Digital Corridor economic development initiative, said the relocation of the head office to Research Triangle Park, which is located near Durham, Raleigh and Chapel Hill, is "a little disappointing," but he noted that Argolyn is poised for success and more financing.

"What we have to recognize, is whereas our technology community is maturing, there are certainly other areas that are more mature," Andrade said. "It clearly is a case where there's some very seasoned leadership that will help take this company to the next level."

Argolyn is working to develop drugs carried by peptides, which can deliver medicine with great accuracy but break down quickly in the bloodstream. It is named after the amino acids arginine and lysine, which the company modifies to produce peptide-based drugs. Much of Argolyn's 2007 cash infusion came from Intersouth Partners, a Durham, N.C.-based investment firm. While the financing bolstered Charleston's reputation in the world of "knowledge-based" business, venture capitalists often like to be close to the firms that they have stakes in, according to Andrade.

Argolyn also announced Monday that it has hired Nick Ellis as its president and chief executive officer. Ellis, a microbiologist, has three decades of experience with blue-chip North Carolina pharmaceutical companies. Ellis will work at a Durham office with another new hire, George Koszalka, who is chief development officer.

"I love Charleston as an area, but as a place to develop drugs and find the kind of people you need to do that, it will be much easier for Argolyn to do that in the Research Triangle area," Ellis said.

Ellis replaces Pearce Gilbert, who will remain with the firm's Charleston office as chief operating officer. Thomas A. Dix, Argolyn's founding scientist and chief scientific officer, will continue to manage the company's research and development from his MUSC lab and a facility in North Charleston. Dix's work involves a large colony of rats, which would have been difficult to transfer to a different lab. Ellis said Argolyn hopes to test its products on people in clinical trials by the second half of 2009.