Monthly Archives: February 2015

Guerrilla RF closes on $500K funding round

Guerrilla RF Inc., a Greensboro-based provider of microchips for wireless network infrastructure, has closed on a $500,000 funding round and is set to begin mass production of its first products this summer.

The round was led by the Charlotte Angel Fund and also included Piedmont Angel Network and other participants, the company announced.

Ryan Pratt, founder and CEO of Guerrilla RF and son of RF Micro Devices Inc. co-founder Bill Pratt, said mass production of semiconductors will be carried out in Taiwan and packaging will be done in either Malaysia or the Philippines. The money will also allow the firm to develop additional products for the wireless network infrastructure market.

Guerrilla RF was founded in April 2013 and now has eight employees, seven of whom work from a location at 1196 Pleasant Ridge Road.

Pratt said his father is a minority investor in the company and a member of Guerrilla RF’s board of directors.

Greensboro-based RF Micro Devices Inc. and Hillsboro, Ore.-based TriQuint Semiconductor Inc. merged to become Qorvo (NASDAQ: QRVO).

Source: Triad Business Journal

Piedmont Pharmaceuticals Lands FDA Approval for Animal Health Medication

Greensboro-based Piedmont Animal Health has received Food and Drug Administration for its Advantus soft chew, a flavored chewable flea medication for dogs.

It’s the second product from Piedmont Animal Health, which is part of Piedmont Phamaceuticals, to receive FDA approval and the first to be approved as a new animal drug application.

The oral medication uses Piedmont’s patented soft chew technology that can make the medication more palatable to dogs and more convenient for dog owners. Its active ingredient is imidacloprid, an insecticide that acts as an insect neurotoxin.

“From start to finish, this product was developed on a rapid timeline, thanks to our talented and experienced team of professionals,” said Roland Johnson, founder and CEO of Piedmont Pharmaceuticals.

Johnson said that Piedmont Animal Health has more than 20 additional products in various stages of development and that he expects “a steady stream” of FDA approvals for new products.

In 2013, the company received FDA approval for for Quellin, an anti-inflammatory soft chew that uses carprofen to relive pain and inflammation associated with osteoarthritis in dogs.

The company plans to commercialize more than 10 of its pipeline products, and it holds licensing agreements for other products with multiple global animal health pharmaceutical companies. Executives anticipate hitting $175 million in annual revenue for those portfolio products by the end of 2020.

“With a pipeline this rich, I fully anticipate that Piedmont will be among the top seven companion animal veterinary pharmaceutical companies in the U.S. in just over five years,” Johnson said.

Piedmont Pharma in July brought on animal health industry veteran Dennis Steadman, who held senior positions with multinationals such as Merial and Merck, as its chairman.

Source: Triad Business Journal