A sweet pill to swallow.

• Position: TRIANGLE REGION

Though most diseases it aims to treat aren't household names, BioCryst Pharmaceuticals might soon become one. The Durham biotech, which develops drugs mainly for rare ailments, received three installments totaling about $8.5 million from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to treat hemorrhagic fevers, which include Ebola. The contract is worth as much as $26.3 million. Patients suffering from Ebola in Africa won't be treated with the drug, which will be tested on primates. In June, BioCryst--which moved from Birmingham, Ala., in 2010-- completed a secondary public offering worth nearly $107 million, propelling it from unlisted to No. 38 on Business North Carolina's Top 75 ranking of the state's largest public companies ("Go With the Gut," August). The federal Food and Drug Administration...