LIFE SCIENCES.

North Carolina continues to gain prominence as a major life sciences state with investments from both large pharmaceutical companies and innovative new businesses and startups. Clusters of manufacturers have developed in Dohnston, Lee, Pitt and other counties, while the Raleigh-Durham area is a key research center aided by strong university research programs.

CRAY ARMSTRONG

senior director of operations | Pfizer

Sanford

Armstrong oversees Pfizer's growing Lee County operations. The global developer and manufacturer of health-care products committed $100 million for clinical trial materials production in 2017 and $500 million to produce gene therapies in 2019. He has an N.C. State University master's degree.

ARAVINDASOKAN

co-founder, acting chief scientific officer | StrideBio

Durham

Asokan is a surgery, biomedical engineering and molecular genetics and microbiology professor at Duke University School of Medicine, where he also serves as director of gene therapy. He previously taught at UNC Chapel Hill, where he earned a Ph.D. in pharmaceutical chemistry in 2004. He started StrideBio in 2015, based on research he and co-founder Mavis Agbandje-McKenna completed. He also co-founded Chapel Hill-based Bamboo Therapeutics, which developed gene therapies and was purchased for about $200 million by Pfizer in 2016.

ANTHONY ATALA

director | Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine

Winston-Salem

Atala's research work has been the subject of hundreds of journal articles. He and his team of more than 400 researchers are developing ways to grow replacement tissue and organs from healthy cells donated by patients. The Wake Forest School of Medicine professor holds more than 250 patents. He is a recipient of the Christopher Columbus Foundation Award, funded by the U.S. Congress and bestowed on a living American who is working on a discovery that will significantly affect society.

JACK BAILEY

CEO | G1 Therapeutics

Durham

Bailey took the reins of this publicly traded cancer therapies developer in January 2021, adding to a long career in pharmaceuticals. He worked for Eli Lilly and GlaxoSmithKline, where he was president of U.S. pharmaceuticals for five years. He is a graduate of Hobart College and UNC Chapel Hill.

Pre-workday motivation: Reading The Wall Street Journal and completing Wordle.

Key to industry success: Developing good innovation that meets an unmet medical need.

Best advice: "Comparison is the thief of joy." --Theodore Roosevelt.

Proud family accomplishment: A 27 year marriage and two children who are pursuing their passion in the sciences.

Favorite hobby: Taking 50-mile bike rides along the Falls of Neuse Creenway.

Where to entertain a visitor: Angus Barn

DOUG BURNS

president | Crifols Therapeutics

Clayton

A chemist with a Ph.D. from University of Delaware. Burns has climbed the ladder at Crifols over the past decade. The Barcelona-based company makes medicines derived from human plasma. It has steadily expanded in North Carolina, where it had more than 2,000 workers as of 2020.

BRIAN CAVENEY

chief medical officer, president | Labcorp Diagnostics

Burlington

After working for Duke University Medical Center and Blue Cross Blue Shield. Caveney joined Labcorp in 2017. He holds medical and law degrees from West Virginia...