Med tech company to add 50 jobs, spend $65 million in Durham – Business North Carolina

A California-based medical technology company plans to spend $65 million and add more than 50 jobs to its operations in Durham.

The 57,000-square-foot expansion at Science Corp.’s TW Alexander Drive location will support semiconductor manufacturing for new technologies, including for a visual prosthesis.

Science Corp. is in the field of brain-computer interfaces. The company is working to restore quality of life to those with debilitating conditions for which there are no treatment options, creating devices aimed at restoring vision, cognition and mobility to patients who have lost it.

Its first product in development, the Science Eye, deploys brain-computer interface technology with the goal of restoring vision to blind patients with retinitis pigmentosa and dry age-related macular degeneration.

“Our long-term goal at Science Foundry is to become the go-to manufacturing partner for the next generation of medical and brain-computer interface devices,” said Kara Zappitelli, director of Science Foundry, in a statement. “We are excited to partner with Durham County and expand in the Triangle region as part of this mission.”

Two-thirds of the new jobs require only a two-year degree or less, and nearly 90% of the jobs require five years of experience or less, said Durham County Board of Commissioners Chair Nida Allam.

Science Corp.’s investment and expansion in Durham County will be facilitated, in part, by a $930,000 10-year performance-based incentive award approved by the Durham County Board of Commissioners.

All payments for the project will adhere to the Durham County Economic Development Incentive Policy and will only occur following annual performance verification that the company has met its job creation, investment, and community partnership targets. This includes maintaining that property taxes paid annually are at a minimum twice the scheduled payment amount.

The company is based in Alameda, California, and also has an operation in Paris. In April, it acquired the intellectual property and related assets for the Prima retinal implant from French bioelectronics company Pixium Vision.

In December 2022, the company acquired MEMSCAP’s U.S. assets, and specifically its MEMS foundry facility and team in Research Triangle Park.

MEMSCAP was an early innovator in the MEMS space, and in 2001 was the first pure-play Microelectromechanical systems company to go public. Founded in 1997, MEMSCAP acquired its U.S. foundry business in 2002 from JDS Uniphase, which itself had acquired the site for approximately $750 million from Cronos Integrated Microsystems.