Each week, our Regional Roundup delivers the most important and timely life sciences news from around the region. From groundbreaking research to fundraising, new development projects, and who’s hiring — we bring you the top stories that matter most. Stay informed with a curated selection of the latest news, delivered directly to your inbox weekly.
North Carolina life sciences spent this week investing in people, not just projects. Across People, Workforce, and Good Reads, the throughline wasn’t one splashy announcement — it was infrastructure for talent: new training facilities, new scholarships, and proof that the “jobs” side of the industry’s growth is just as real as the funding rounds.
Start with the ribbon-cuttings. ABEC’s Wilson facility finally opened four years after it was first announced, and not far south, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals and South Piedmont Community College opened a new Aseptic Training Facility built to get 75 trainees a year into cGMP-ready roles. Both are betting the same way that eastern and south-central NC’s next wave of biomanufacturing jobs needs a classroom before it needs a payroll.
That bet is already paying off. In Wilson, two BioWork grads who took night classes around their schedules turned a $200 credential into $67,000-a-year jobs at Johnson & Johnson’s new biologics plant, the exact pipeline Wilson Community College’s $36.4 million workforce hub is being built to scale. And six community college students across five counties were just named 2026-2027 Sam Taylor Memorial Scholars, carrying forward the 25-year legacy of the person who helped build that pipeline in the first place.
Zoom out and the numbers catch up with the stories: NC has landed 91 life sciences projects, 10,000+ jobs, and $19 billion in investment since 2022, and Commerce Secretary Lee Lilley’s read is optimistic, “almost anybody can work in life sciences” here now. This week’s People and Workforce sections are what that statistic looks like up close.
Financial
Tracking the capital moving through North Carolina— funding rounds, M&A activity, and investment trends shaping NC’s life sciences companies.
Reckitt Doubles Its Investment in North Carolina’s Largest OTC Manufacturing Facility
Reckitt is committing up to $600 million toward a nationwide multi-year transformation, designating a substantial portion to double capital for its 310,000-square-foot footprint in Wilson, North Carolina. Set to launch in early 2027 as the firm’s primary domestic OTC plant, the site will significantly elevate manufacturing output for flagship products like Mucinex and Move Free while scaling up supply resilience. Read More >
Levee Medical Awarded ~$2 Million NIH SBIR Phase II Grant to Advance Research Supporting the Voro® Urologic Scaffold
Durham-based medical device developer Levee Medical has secured nearly $2 million in NIH SBIR Phase II funding from the National Cancer Institute to propel the development of its Voro® Urologic Scaffold. Building on full enrollment in its ARID II pivotal trial, the two-year non-dilutive grant will accelerate clinical data acquisition, training programs, and technology refinements aimed at improving post-prostatectomy incontinence outcomes. Read More >
People
Who we’re buzzing about this week — the leadership moves, board appointments, and rising names shaping the region’s life sciences community.
Kincell Bio Appoints Edwin Beale as Chief Commercial Officer
Edwin Beale has been named Chief Commercial Officer of Kincellis Advanced Therapies, the cell therapy CDMO formed this month through the merger of Kincell Bio and Cellipont Bioservices, where Beale had served as CCO since 2024. He brings more than two decades of business development and commercial leadership in life sciences contract manufacturing, including stops at iVexSol, Catalent Biologics, and Cytovance Biologics, and holds an MBA from UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School alongside a master’s in molecular biology from Tuskegee University. Read More >
Six NC Community Colleges Students Named 2026-2027 Sam Taylor Memorial Scholars
NCLifeSci, alongside the state’s community college system and its foundation, has selected six scholars for the 2026-2027 Samuel M. Taylor Memorial Life Sciences Scholarship, recognizing students across Caldwell, Johnston, Wilson, Durham Tech, and Wake Tech community colleges. Honoring the quarter-century legacy of NCLifeSci founder Sam Taylor in cultivating local biopharma talent, the awards support individuals pursuing training in biotechnology, clinical research, bioprocessing, and facility operations. Highlighting the cohort’s impact, NCLifeSci President Laura Gunter noted that these awardees reflect the drive and varied insights essential to sustaining North Carolina’s life sciences momentum. Read More >
Bill Pappas Named a TIME Executive of the Year
Bill Pappas, Executive Vice President and Head of Global Technology and Operations at MetLife, has been named to TIME’s Executives of the Year: Tech & Data list for 2026, recognizing 50 leaders shaping the future of technology. Pappas leads more than 38,000 technology and operations staff from MetLife’s global tech hub in Cary, having steered a $3.2 billion modernization initiative and more recently driven AI integration efforts that have sped up claims processing and cut costs, following earlier honors including Forbes’ CIO Next list and NC TECH CIO of the Year. Read More >
Tala Fakhouri Named to Inaugural AI Health 25
Parexel’s Chief AI & Regulatory Strategy Officer, Tala Fakhouri, PhD, MPH, was selected for Doceree’s AI Health 25 list, honoring visionaries transforming modern medicine across pharma, medtech, and marketing. Before moving to the Raleigh CRO, Fakhouri served at the FDA, where she championed the CDER AI Council and authored initial CDER AI draft guidance, building on past public health work as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer and CDC Chief Statistician. Read More >
Workforce
The hiring activity, team expansions, and talent trends driving growth across North Carolina’s life sciences and biotech employers.
ABEC Opens New Manufacturing Facility in Wilson, North Carolina
Following its initial August 2022 proposal to channel $11M into Wilson with plans for a 2023 debut, biomanufacturing equipment supplier ABEC has launched its latest operation, capped off by a September 24 ribbon-cutting ceremony. Featuring a high-spec ISO-7 cleanroom and expanded hiring targets, the newly operational site highlights the accelerating expansion of eastern North Carolina’s life sciences infrastructure. Read More >
Glenmark Pharmaceuticals and South Piedmont Community College Launch Aseptic Training Facility in Monroe, N.C.
Through a $2.7 million commitment from Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, South Piedmont Community College has unveiled a state-of-the-art Aseptic Training Facility in Monroe, marking a pioneering regional hub for south-central North Carolina. The center will deliver hands-on instruction in aseptic operations, cGMP compliance, and industrial equipment upkeep to prepare students and local professionals for NC BioWork credentials, projecting an initial group of 75 trainees. Attending the opening, U.S. Sen. Ted Budd emphasized the initiative’s role in solidifying the state’s biomanufacturing ecosystem and talent pipeline. Read More >
Two Wilson County Grads Turn a Night Class into Jobs at Johnson & Johnson’s New Biologics Plant
Attending 6 p.m. BioWork courses to accommodate his academic schedule, Zy’Ques Ingram joined classmate Dillon Gay as recent Wilson County graduates honored by NCBiotech for securing biomanufacturing roles at Johnson & Johnson’s state-of-the-art biologics facility. Their transition illustrates how a $200 credential can yield a $67,000 starting salary at age 19. Highlighting this regional workforce pipeline, Wilson Community College reports that a majority of its BioWork program graduates secure positions with major regional employers including J&J, Fresenius Kabi, and Merck, further validating the institution’s upcoming $36.4 million workforce development hub. Read More >
ConvergeSouth Draws Its Largest Crowd Yet to Winston-Salem, With North Carolina Biotech in the Spotlight
More than 500 entrepreneurs, investors, and support organizations gathered in downtown Winston-Salem’s Innovation Quarter for ConvergeSouth, the largest edition yet of the 10-year-old event, with NCBiotech’s Piedmont Triad team helping lead a packed healthtech/biotech track alongside AI and food/agtech programming. Agtech company CHONEX won the regional title in Pegasus Tech Ventures’ $1 million Startup World Cup, advancing to November’s Grand Finale in San Francisco, while NCBiotech portfolio companies including Neuriora, OncoTab, OsteoCure Therapeutics, and Plakous Therapeutics pitched alongside candid talk from investors like Hatteras Venture Partners’ Heather Madsen and Cape Fear BioCapital’s Ed Field on what it takes for NC founders to compete globally. Read More >
Who’s hiring?!
Top Employer
Thermo Fisher Scientific
Serving as a global cornerstone in scientific instrumentation, analytical reagents, and healthcare services, Thermo Fisher Scientific empowers partners throughout the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and academic sectors to expedite drug development and tackle intricate research demands. By pairing extensive technological capability with expansive operational scale, the organization delivers end-to-end solutions spanning basic laboratory discovery to full commercial drug manufacturing.
North Carolina represents one of the enterprise’s most vital domestic hubs, encompassing 13 locations and approximately 7,800 regional professionals. The flagship Greenville operation anchors its pharmaceutical services network, driving specialized clinical development and large-scale sterile injectable production. Meanwhile, a recently launched 375,000-square-foot facility in Mebane manufactures critical lab consumables to sustain national biomanufacturing needs. These strategic investments, alongside multiple research and diagnostic facilities across the state, continue to solidify North Carolina as a premier regional destination for top-tier biopharma talent and technical ingenuity.
The company currently features more than 40+ open positions across its North Carolina sites. Apply Here >
Other employers and available roles we’re paying attention to this week:
- GSK (Zebulon, NC) is hiring a Smart Manufacturing & Cl Graduate Program | Apply Now >
- Merck (Durham, NC) is hiring a Specialist, Engineering | Apply Now >
- KBI Biopharama (Durham, NC) is hiring a Manufacturing Execution System (MES) Engineer I/II | Apply Now >
- FujiFilm Biotechnologies (Holly Springs, NC) is hiring a Plant Electrical Engineer- Pharma | Apply Now >
- Novartis (Durham, NC) is hiring a Robotics & Automation Engineer | Apply Now >
- CRB (Raleigh, NC) is hiring a Structural Engineer Intern (Summer 2027) | Apply Now >
Clinical + Commercial
The latest clinical trial progress, regulatory milestones, and commercial launches from companies advancing science from the lab to the market across North Carolina.
Wake Forest Researchers Identify a Protein That Helps Aggressive Breast Cancer Spread to the Brain
Scientists at Wake Forest have identified a crucial protein enabling aggressive triple-negative breast cancer to bypass central nervous system defenses, revealing that inhibiting this pathway reduced tumor progression and halted metastatic spread in early studies. Published in Neuro-Oncology, the research demonstrates how SIRPα enhances cancer cell mobility while dampening localized immune activity, unlocking a promising therapeutic avenue for hard-to-treat TNBC cases. Read More >
NC State Lands a $3.3 Million NIH Grant to Molecular Timing Behind Early Pregnancy
NC State researcher Xiaoqiu “Churchill” Wang has secured a $3.3 million NIH grant to investigate the epigenetic signaling driving uterine readiness during embryo implantation. In partnership with computational scientist Xinxia Peng and Duke University School of Medicine investigators, the study targets foundational mechanisms behind recurrent pregnancy loss, endometriosis, and endometrial cancer. Read More >
Ecosystem
The partnerships, programs, and policy moves building North Carolina’s life sciences infrastructure — and the organizations driving it forward.
NC Alumnus Establishes Full Scholarships for Undergraduate Students in Agriculture Majors
NC State graduate David Peele is directing $10 million to establish the Peele Scholars Fund, fully financing tuition and living expenses for College of Agriculture and Life Sciences undergraduates hailing from 39 eastern North Carolina counties. Debuting with five students for the fall 2027 academic year, the endowment also secures stipends for research, global studies, and industry internships, equipping a new generation of agricultural innovators to steer the state’s ecosystem forward. Read More >
$1.25 Million in NCRHTP Funding Announced to Expand School-Based Health Centers in North Carolina
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services has announced $1.25 million in federal funding through the North Carolina Rural Health Transformation Program to expand school-based health centers, funding preventive and acute care, nutrition support, and behavioral health services across five organizations, including Wilson County Health Department and First Health of the Carolinas. The state’s roughly 90 existing centers already serve about 30,000 children, with nearly 20% of students using school-based mental health services where available — part of a broader $213 million-plus, five-year rural health push backed by CMS. Read More >
Saku Biosciences and Wake Forest’s Sable Fermentation Team Up to Offer One Contract From Strain to Scale-Up
Saku Biosciences and Sable Fermentation, Inc. announced a partnership on September 23, 2026 giving U.S. customers a single agreement covering the full biomanufacturing development path, from strain engineering through scale-up and formulation. “Two specialized companies, designed to feel like one to the customer, gets you the best of both models,” said Mark van Zee, Ph.D., co-founder and CEO of Saku Biosciences. “You keep the depth, and you drop the friction.” Read More >
Other [Good] Reads
Editor’s picks from across the web — the stories, videos, and podcasts shaping the conversation in NC biotech and life sciences this week.
North Carolina Life Sciences Boom Brings 10,000 Jobs, $19B in Investment Since 2022
North Carolina has announced 91 life sciences economic development projects since 2022, creating more than 10,000 jobs and $19 billion in capital investment statewide, according to Commerce Secretary Lee Lilley. State and regional leaders are especially pushing eastern North Carolina residents to see biotechnology as an accessible career path, with NCBiotech’s Bill Bullock noting “almost anybody can work in life sciences” as the region builds its reputation as a biopharma manufacturing hub. Read More >
On the Calendar
A few of the upcoming events, conferences, and networking opportunities across North Carolina’s life sciences ecosystem that you don’t want to miss.
Conference Center @NCBiotech Client Appreciation & Open House
Wednesday, September 30, 2026 • 4:30-6:30 PM • Durham, NC
Hosted by NCBiotech | Register Now >
ISPE Hands-On Controlled Production of Drug Substance and Drug Product in Biomanufacturing
Tuesday-Wednesday, October 6-7, 2026 • Durham, NC
Hosted by ISPE (at the Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center) | Register Now >
Triangle Biotech Networking Night
Thursday, October 8, 2026 • 5:30–7:30 PM • Durham, NC
Hosted by Triangle Biotech | Register Now >
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