Deals & Data
The severe cash crunch appears to have eased. That's good news for San Diego’s life science industry, which employs thousands of people at nearly 50 public companies and hundreds of smaller firms. The San Diego Union-Tribune takes a look at the signs of economic recovery, and how life science companies survived.
Shares of the San Diego biotechnology company Sequenom plunged 39 percent last week, a day after the ousting of key executives raised uncertainty about the prospects for the company and a once-promising test it is developing. The company sacked chief executive Harry Stylli after a five-month board investigation found that there had been inadequate procedures for testing a prenatal Down syndrome test Sequenom had hoped to launch in June.
Inovio Biomedical Corp., a San Diego-based company specializing in DNA vaccine design, development and delivery, has announced that a combination of its synthetic consensus (SynCon) H1N1 influenza vaccine candidates achieved protective antibody responses against the novel pandemic influenza A/H1N1 in 100 percent of tested ferrets, the San Diego Daily Transcript reports.The ferret model is widely considered to be the most representative of human influenza; achieving in ferrets a level of antibody titers commonly associated with protection in humans is a critical milestone in influenza vaccine development, Inovio said in a statement.
Two of San Diego’s most successful life science companies will duke it out in court. Life Technologies of Carlsbad has sued San Diego's Illumina over alleged patent infringement.
Santaris Pharma, a Denmark-based private biopharmaceutical company has established its U.S. operations in San Diego. Santaris is focused on developing RNA-based drugs targeted to disease-related mRNAs and microRNAs and has a pipeline that includes programs to treat metabolic disorders, infectious and inflammatory diseases, cancer and Marval Biosciences, which was established in Houston two years ago with medical imaging technology from the University of Texas, has raised $2.5 million in a secondary round of venture funding—and CEO Russell Lebovitz tells me he has moved to San Diego.
Marval Biosciences, which was established in Houston two years ago with medical imaging technology from the University of Texas, has raised $2.5 million in a secondary round of venture funding, CEO Russell Lebovitz told Xconomy.
Salk Institute for Biological Studies has launched PolioToday.org, a site dedicated to sufferers of post-polio syndrome. The site includes videos, resource links and a real-time forum for former polio patients who have the syndrome, which is characterized by extreme fatigue and limb weakness.Salk spokesman Mauricio Minotta said traffic on the site, which has not been written about in the mainstream media, has come largely via the institute's Twitter account and Facebook page. "We are attracting an audience to our page that already has a built-in interest in our work," Minotta said.
San Diego’s Quidel, which signaled it would report better-than-expected quarterly results on Sept. 10, isn’t the only San Diego biomedical company to get a boost from worries about swine flu. At least four other companies with flu-related products or research programs also have seen their share prices surge since June 11, when World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan declared the H1N1 swine flu pandemic had begun. Xconomy considers whether swine flu presents a real opportunity for these companies?
San Diego-based weight loss drug maker Orexigen Therapeutics reported positive results Sept. 30 for the second of two weight loss drugs the company has in development.
Transdel, a San Diego-company that has developed a topical pain reliever, expects to hear a definite answer from pivotal study of 350 patients by the end of this month, which will determine whether the drug is good enough to win FDA approval. If the company passes this test, it will soon be able to dip its toe into a global market for pain relievers that was worth $19.1 billion in 2008, and is expected to grow to $32.8 billion by 2013, according to market research firm BCC Research. Xconomy visited the company.
On the same day The Scripps Research Institute debuted a center focused on designing better AIDS vaccines, a study of more than 16,000 people in Thailand offered encouragement that an experimental vaccine could one day prevent HIV.
RetroVirox Inc., a San Diego biotechnology company specializing in the development of novel antivirals, has received a grant award of $296,875 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID), of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
This is the second award to RetroVirox from the NIH in less than six months. In March the company received its first grant to develop novel inhibitors of HIV entry, the San Diego Daily Transcript reports.
The Los Angeles Times featured Southern California’s work in biofuels, specifically its work in turning algae into fuel.
San Diego’s little Cibus Global is preparing to one day take on Monsanto, the Fortune 500 agri-industry colossus and leading producer of genetically engineered seed. Xconomy reports that the bioscience company last month formed a joint partnership with an agricultural products company based in Tel Aviv to spur development of new strains of crops. High on Cibus’ to-do list is the development of crops resistant to weed killers sold by its new Israeli partner, Makhteshim-Agan. This is the model pioneered by Monsanto, which developed a line of “Roundup Ready” crops that are genetically altered to resist its herbicide, Roundup.
With its first product approved for market, Novalar has been testing the waters before its national launch of Oraverse. Xconomy caught up with the San Diego company.
IMS Health announced the launch of Ask IMSTM, a cost-effective, Web-based service that provides strategic market intelligence to help drive the growth and success of early-stage biopharmaceutical companies. Drawn from IMS’s comprehensive pharmaceutical market information, Ask IMS offers timely decision-making support for understanding critical market opportunities and issues, as well as for planning and executing successful commercialization strategies.
McCarthy Building Companies has completed construction for the new $23 Million San Diego Mesa College Allied Health Building, which is in process of being LEED Gold certified. The facility houses a computer lab, classrooms, a clinical dental lab, physical therapy lab, medical lab, plus faculty and staff offices.