News from Industry Member Companies
Invitrogen moved a step closer to patients- and to its big-biotech neighbor in Oceanside- with the pre-market approval of a test to see if patients should be taking Genentech’s Herceptin breast cancer treatment. Long regarded as one of the precursors of personalized medicine, Herceptin is a breast cancer treatment only given to women with certain genetic markers. Invitrogen also launched a new line of early drug safety tests and signed a Canadian partnership.
Not to be outdone, just down the street, Isis got a $20 million cross-town cash infusion into its Ibis subsidiary from Abbott, which has a major facility up in Temecula. Ibis is working on its T5000 Biosensor System for the rapid identification of infectious agents. Speaking of Abbott Laboratories, the San Diego Business Journal reports that the firm’s Xience V drug-eluting stent was approved by the FDA on July 2.
A wise man once said, "you've got to know when to hold them, know when to fold them, know when to walk away and know when to run." Apparently, Gen-Probe's Hank Nordhoff heard that third one loud and clear. The ante was upped against Gen-Probe’s $338 million offer to acquire Innogenetics, and Gen-Probe knew when to walk away. Belgium's Solvay Pharmaceuticals, who threw the first offer for Innogenetics at $9.04 a share in April, topped Gen-Probe's June bid of $9.58 to $10.21 in July. Wall Street apparently though Gen-Probe was still the winner and pushed its stock higher.
Two publicly traded firms that have been a part of the local life science community for a while had major merger news.
Inovio Biomedical signed a merger agreement with VGX Pharmaceuticals of Pennsylvania. The two will combine their DNA vaccine hardware and software offerings.
SGX Pharmaceuticals, which evolved from being one of the many proteomics firms that emerged following the sequencing of the Human Genome to being a drug development firm, was acquired by one of the major drug developers, with Eli Lilly and Co. buying the firm for $64 million.
Pure Bioscience sunk one from outside the key with a distribution agreement with Ochem Corp. under its Specrum 24 brand. Owned by Hall of Fame basketball legend Oscar Robertson, Cincinnati-headquartered Orchem Corporation is the leading minority-owned specialty chemical manufacturer in the United States. Pure slipped another one under the ring by hitting the closing bell at Nasdaq on July 15.
Santarus signed a $25 million line of credit … Pacira Pharmaceuticals has added some employees and board members … Arena Pharmaceuticals showed some positive early Phase Ib data on its arterial thrombosis drug candidate … Orexigen said it started a second Phase II trial of its weight loss drug on schedule …
Adnavance Technologies, a Canadian firm with a San Diego research office, landed a $1.8 million Series B financing. The firm is working on diagnostic tests for MRSA … Ardea Biosciences says it has a proof-of-concept to use its RDEA 806 to study gout patients … Vical will be presenting phase I data on its pandemic influenza DNA virus vaccine this week …
SkinMedica has launched a new Web site … Cytori sold its first European Union StemSource Cell Bank to a cord blood stem cell banking service in Greece … and also in Europe, Cardium Therapeutics said its InnerCool RapidBlue system for inducing mild hypothermia in a variety of clinical indications including cardiac arrest, neurosurgery, fever, cardiovascular re-warming, trauma re-warming was approved for sale.
Up in Orange County, IDM Pharma says that the European Committee for Medicinal Products has asked for more data on its Phase III trial of the company’s Mifamurtide treatment for cancer … Spectrum Pharmaceuticals has established an expansion even further North, up in Canada, while Cortex Pharmaceuticals said it met with the premier of Alberta at BIO 2008.
And finally, Brad Fikes, one of the stalwart scribes who has followed the biotech industry in Southern California for longer than many of us, is sticking with his reporting job at the North County Times, but has launched an independent biotech blog looking at events and activities in the life science community. Please click here to read Brad’s always informative information on the industry, and tell your friends to hit up: http://bradsbiotechblog.journalspace.com/.