One of the most surprising stories out of the stock market in recent weeks comes courtesy of a biotech company that not all that long ago committed to major operations in Greensboro but then dropped those plans.

ProKidney Corp., a medical biotech company that specializes in kidney disease treatments, stunned Wall Street recently when its stock price jumped more than 500 percent in a single day. In fact, from the end of June through July 10, shares of ProKidney Corp. shot up 775 percent.

The stock, which had been trading below a dollar a share in recent months, went up in value to over $5 a share at one point. The sudden spike was fueled by promising Phase 2 trial results for rilparencel, an experimental cell therapy aimed at slowing or reversing chronic kidney disease in patients with diabetes.

That’s great news for mankind but it makes it harder to take what Greensboro may be missing out on.

That’s because, while investors are happy and ProKidney’s valuation is soaring, many local officials and economic development advocates are left thinking about what happened to ProKidney’s long-promised manufacturing facility and hundreds of high-paying jobs for Greensboro.

Back in 2022, ProKidney – then a rapidly expanding biotech firm with its headquarters in Winston-Salem – made a big announcement that put Greensboro in the national spotlight: The company announced it would build a massive bio-manufacturing facility in Greensboro.  At that time the stock was over $12 a share and the projected investment in the new facility in Greensboro was nearly half a billion dollars.

The job creation was supposed to total 330 new positions, with an average annual salary of $74,636.

The timeline called for construction to start in 2023, with major Guilford County operations to follow.

At the time, state and local officials couldn’t praise the project enough. Former North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper issued a celebratory press release. The state approved more than $25 million in incentives through the Job Development Investment Grant program. The Guilford County commissioners approved a large local incentive package of their own. The City of Greensboro and Duke Energy also offered incentives.

It seemed like a major win for the city – a sign that Greensboro’s bet on biotech and advanced manufacturing was paying off.

However, by mid-2024, something had changed and by late 2024 Greensboro Chamber of Commerce leaders were stating that the plans were currently a no go.

Despite all the fanfare, ProKidney never broke ground and no hiring fair was held.

In a brief public statement, the company cited “changing capital markets and revised manufacturing timelines” as reasons for the delay – but stopped short of canceling the project outright at that time.

ProKidney hasn’t submitted any permit applications or site development plans for the planned site since its original announcement. It looked like it didn’t matter much when the stock was 60 cents a share and the company appeared to be on life support. However, in just a few days this month, the company’s prospects have greatly improved.

On Monday, July 22, the company released early Phase 2 results showing that the rilparencel treatment slowed the decline in kidney function in patients with type 2 diabetes and moderate to severe chronic kidney disease. The trial enrolled more than 150 patients, and the therapy appeared to meet its endpoints, setting the stage for a Phase 3 trial expected to begin in early 2026.

That windfall should, in theory, put ProKidney in a better position to fund manufacturing expansion efforts.

ProKidney’s leadership has said little publicly about the North Carolina facility since its IPO in 2022, which came via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company, better known as a SPAC.

One good thing is that North Carolina’s – as well as local – incentive agreements are structured to prevent public money from being handed out if a company doesn’t follow through on its economic development promises.

ProKidney’s local and state incentives packages were structured as a performance-based grant – meaning no funds were to be released until job and investment targets were met.

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