Oxygen Biotherapeutics, a Morrisville, N.C.-based developer of medical and cosmetic products that efficiently deliver oxygen to tissues in the body, is searching for laboratory space in the Research Triangle Park region of North Carolina.

Beginning in September, Oxygen Biotherapeutics will be consolidating its operations and relocating its research and development function from Costa Mesa, Calif., to North Carolina. The company has already successfully subleased its Costa Mesa facility at terms that made the transition cost effective.

“North Carolina has the business climate, facilities and creative talent we need to help push our programs forward,” said Michael Jebsen, president and CFO, Oxygen Biotherapeutics. “Relocating R&D to North Carolina has been under consideration for quite some time, however, the recession strongly impacted the real estate market in southern California thereby preventing us from subletting the facility and making the transition sooner. We are excited about bringing this important function closer to our headquarters.”

Oxygen Biotherapeutics has engaged commercial real estate brokers to identify a new laboratory location. Three positions in California were eliminated due to the relocation and the company expects to replace these vacancies when the new facility is established. Current R&D activities allow for this transition period since most development work has been completed for the existing programs and all of the manufacturing of the company’s perfluorocarbon-based products—primarily Oxycyte and Dermacyte—is done by contract manufacturers.

“The foundation of this company was built primarily on research that came out of our Costa Mesa lab, and we wish to thank all our California-based employees for their efforts over the years,” added Jebsen. “They have given us novel perfluorocarbon-based products and it is now our challenge to move them through the clinical stages to commercialization.”