Biotech Hub Announces New Tenant.

North Carolina Research Campus Inks Deal with Pelican Life Sciences

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Pelican Life Sciences will join the state-of-the-art North Carolina Research Campus, Vice President of Business Development Clyde Higgs announced today.

"We're very happy to be in business with Pelican Life Sciences," said Higgs. "We continue to reach out and find success with exciting companies like Pelican Life Sciences in the medical devices, diagnostics, health and wellness and agri-bio tech fields."

Pelican Life Sciences' mission is to facilitate life science research by providing the highest quality products for discovery and detection. The company's focus is to fulfill the unique needs of researchers and technicians with personalized, adaptive solutions. The company has three main segments; microbiology consumables, molecular biology consumables and life science reagents.

"Pelican embraces the visionary concepts put forth by David Murdock and the North Carolina Research Campus and sought to be a valued contributor to the creative community envisioned," said T.W. (Bill) Baugh III, Pelican Life Sciences' CEO. "The location of the research campus means that a core component of Pelican's research and development efforts will be located within 20 miles of Pelican's corporate headquarters."

At the research campus, Pelican Life Sciences will create an international research and development center. The facility will focus on applied research and the coordination of Pelican's research and development efforts at their various facilities. Initially, the company anticipates a team of 5 to 10 researchers, who will be based at the research campus. Pelican Life Sciences expects to increase their staff over time.

Founded in December 2005, Pelican Life Sciences, based in Huntersville, N.C., is the brainchild of Baugh and Jeff Leathe, who serves as the company's president. Since that date Pelican Life Sciences has completed eight acquisitions. The company is headquartered near Charlotte, North Carolina, and has operations in Portland, Oregon; San Diego, California; Williamsport, Maryland; Frederick, Maryland; Baja, Mexico; Vancouver, British Columbia; Toronto, Ontario; and Northampton, United Kingdom. Pelican Life Sciences is backed by a $100 million equity commitment from Grotech Capital Group and Ferrer, Freeman and Company.

Plans for the North Carolina Research Campus include:

* A 350-acre campus that complements North Carolina's bustling biotech corridor, including the Research Triangle Park, the Triad and Charlotte.

* An initial 311,000-square-foot building to house the core laboratory, a state-of-the-art contract manufacturing biogenic facility and tenants. Campus partners broke ground on the building in February.

* One million square feet of office and lab space.