FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 22, 2011
For more information please contact: SCRA Micki Howard 843.760.3329 office 843.697.9226 mobile micki.howard@scra.org
VaxyGen Assay Services Selects Charleston SCRA/MUSC Innovation Center as Operations Headquarters
Charleston, SC – August 22, 2011 – SCRA today announced its newest tenant company, VaxyGen Assay Services. The company will lease space in the SCRA Medical University of South Carolina Innovation Center located in Charleston, SC for both laboratory and business operations.
VaxyGen Assay Services provides contract custom testing services to the biopharmaceutical and vaccine industry as well as research/development organizations to characterize the active components and their effects in developing therapeutics and vaccines. The company's client base includes multinational biopharmaceutical and vaccine companies.
Leading the company is CEO is David Dodd, an experienced executive who has served as CEO of major pharmaceutical and life science companies such as Solvay, BioReliance Corporation, and Serologicals. Dodd has also held executive leadership positions at Wyeth, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Abbott Laboratories. In 2009, Dodd formed RiversEdge BioVentures, an investment and acquisition company, based in Beaufort, SC.
"The successful development of life-enhancing vaccines and biopharmaceutical therapies is highly dependent on the ability to biologically characterize the active components of each potential product. This requires highly intricate assays, custom developed for each specific project," said Dodd. "VaxyGen Assay Services has the expertise and experience to ensure that such potential products are appropriately characterized in order for their development programs to successfully proceed. Having reviewed and evaluated various alternatives to establishing the location for our business operations, we have been most impressed with the support we've received from the SCRA team and the impressive facilities and resources available at the SCRA MUSC Innovation Center. This facility and, in general, the resources within the "MUSC/Charleston area" are highly impressive and a tremendous asset to the life sciences area and, in particular, our company."
The SCRA MUSC Innovation Center is the first of three high-tech facilities that SCRA has built in conjunction with its university and civic partners in South Carolina to grow the Knowledge Economy. With these Centers, SCRA has fulfilled legislative requirements identified in the Innovation Centers Act, which focused on the commercialization of new knowledge-based discoveries.
"We are delighted to welcome VaxyGen Assay Services to the Innovation Center and as a member of South Carolina's Knowledge Economy," said SCRA CEO Bill Mahoney. "It is companies like VaxyGen that are continuing to add quality jobs to the economy and bring excellent technologies and services to market."
About SCRA http://www.scra.org
SCRA is a global leader in applied research and commercialization services with its headquarters in South Carolina. SCRA has a dual mission:
In support of both missions, SCRA builds and manages research facilities that include wet labs, secure rooms for sensitive work and advanced, high-tech manufacturing shops.